When Kelly Rosenheim attended Santa Barbara Middle School in the early 80s, she had a notion that she might return to work there someday. Fellow student Marco Andrade never really considered it.
But they both ended up back at SBMS from 1990 to 1992, married in 2000, and cultivated a satisfying long-term career there – Rosenheim as a Spanish and life skills teacher, and Andrade as dean of students.
“Little did we know that we would reconnect and create a personal and professional life that has lasted over three decades now,” Andrade reflected.
The couple is just one example of many local school teachers and administrators in the Santa Barbara area who have returned to their roots. Some, like Rosenheim, were intentional, while others started to follow another path before coming full circle.
“Having perspective now of a life lived fully immersed in the SBMS and Santa Barbara community, we can confidently say that coming back ‘full circle’ to the school that was such a transformative and important part of our lives has been extremely meaningful,” Andrade said.
“Here at SBMS we call that ‘Keeping the Fire Burning’ so that others can find the kind of meaning we did by attending this school. Certainly not everyone is going to marry their former classmates, have their children share their alma mater, and make a multi-decade career working at their former junior high school – but we did.”
From First Kiss to Head of School
Brian Cogswell never dreamed he would end up at his old stomping grounds. The founder and head of school at South Coast Montessori grew up in Santa Barbara and attended elementary grades at El Rancho School, which is now the SCM campus. After attending UCLA and travelling and living overseas while pursuing a successful career in the hotel industry, he returned to his hometown “in search of a new challenge.”
The challenge seemed to find him when his daughters were students at a Montessori school in town. During the winter break in December 2016, then Santa Barbara Montessori School suddenly announced that it was closing due to bankruptcy.
Parents rallied to create a new school, South Coast Montessori, and Cogswell agreed to serve as Head of School – joining the teachers in working without pay until things got organized.
“It was a herculean effort in such a short window of time, but everybody pitched in and we got it done,” he said. “I fell in love with the idea of working for a nonprofit, where all your efforts and successes get put back into the business.”
The experience was a far cry from his previous career, which was focused on financial rewards. It was only later in life that Cogswell realized the profound satisfaction that comes from working with children in a nonprofit space.
The irony of being back at his former elementary school is not lost on him.
“I think about it often,” Cogswell said. “I had my first kiss on the field behind my office while in fifth grade! After having worked in five countries on four continents in my career, I feel like I am home now. To have my youngest daughter attending an elementary school that I oversee is truly a blessing that I do not take for granted. I am grateful every day to be a part of the South Coast Montessori community. The children and families we work for inspire me daily!”
Leah Sahagun, the primary head teacher and pedagogy director at SCM, also attended this campus as a child, from 18 months to 12 years. She began working at Santa Barbara Montessori School in 2016.
“My dream as a little girl was to be a primary Montessori teacher,” Sahagun said.
She obtained her Montessori training and master’s degree at 23 years old from Washington Montessori Institute. After living and working in different locations in the United States, she came back to Santa Barbara to start a family and knew she wanted her child to attend this school.
“When I moved back to Santa Barbara, there was not a teacher position available at SBMS so I became a full-time, highly productive realtor,” she explained. “One night, in the summer of 2016, I realized that I loved my life but something was missing. I wasn’t ‘soul satisfied.’ I emailed the head of school the next day (who also had been my elementary Montessori teacher) and asked what possibilities would be available for me to return to teaching.
“I was given a primary classroom that fall and was able to go back to my true passion.”
As an added bonus, that was her son’s sixth-grade year at the school, and they were able to “Montessori” together.
“I believe that my full circle was intentional and meaningful, and I am exactly where I am meant to be – in service, in joy and inspired every day,” Sahagun said.
Returning to “Paradise”
“Not even for a second” did Matt DeGroot imagine returning to Crane Country Day School, where he attended middle school from 2001-2004 and now teaches sixth- and seventh-grade history.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my middle school experience and loved learning, but I was also intent on experiencing the world outside of the cozy confines of Crane School,” he said. “When I was 12 or 13 years old, I dreamt of flying the coop and never looking back. Clearly, I didn’t entirely succeed in that aim.”
DeGroot started out in a stressful high-tech career before deciding that teaching was more his style. He received his master’s degree and teaching credential through USC and spent two years in Bay Area public schools. In early 2022, he and his wife were expecting a child and looked for opportunities back home in Santa Barbara.
When a history teaching position opened up at Crane, DeGroot “jumped at the chance.” Now, he fully appreciates his hometown and former school.
“Like many adolescents, I took a lot of things for granted when I was younger,” he said. “As it turns out, I grew up in paradise. I just didn’t realize it at the time. It’s hard for me to imagine a more perfect place to raise a family than Santa Barbara, and it would not have been possible if Crane hadn’t provided me with the opportunity to return home.”
In another example of the opposite experience, DeGroot’s co-worker Megan Flannery tells of her lifelong desire to teach – a goal that formed when she was a first-grader at Crane in the early 90s.
She pursued her dream by attending the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, then teaching in Nashville Public Schools for two years at a Spanish immersion elementary school. She returned to live near family and friends in 2009, when she was hired at Crane.
“I have woken up and gone to Crane every morning for the majority of my life,” the first-grade teacher said.
“… Bringing my career back to Crane was a very natural and easy transition for me. Not only was I moving back to my hometown, but also the school and culture I was raised in. When I first began at Crane a large portion of the teaching staff were my former teachers. Working side-by-side with many of my most inspirational teachers was an amazing experience and such an honor.”
Crane Country Day School currently has eight “staffulty” (their hybrid word for staff and faculty) who attended Crane as students.
“We have a history of alums who have returned to work at their alma mater; eight is the most we have had at any given time,” said Kristen Peralta, director of marketing and communications.
Other fun facts about the eight staffulty/alumni: some overlapped while students at Crane and a couple were in the same class; half have or have had their own children attend Crane; most now work with colleagues who were once their teachers; and many Crane alumni have returned to serve as Board members, including three currently.