With the 2023-2024 school year starting, Noozhawk’s Private & Independent School Guide is sure to make things easy when planning for your child’s education! Our school guide provides you and your child with all the necessary information about local private schools in Santa Barbara County.

To give parents the tools to help make informed decisions about which school is the best fit for their kids in Santa Barbara, Noozhawk has conducted a series of interviews with representatives of local private & independent schools for this year’s school guide.

In this interview, Noozhawk spoke with Heather Carreiro, Associate Director of Marketing & Communications at Midland School to learn more about what their school has to offer.

Midland School

Question: What is the name of your school and what grade levels do you offer?

Answer: We are Midland School in Los Olivos, and we offer boarding education for Grades 9 to 12.

Q: How is your school operated or governed?

A: Our school has a Board of Trustees which is composed primarily of alums, parents, and former parents. Our Head of School collaborates with the Board, and on campus our leadership structure includes a Dean of Academics, Dean of Experiential Learning, Dean of Students, Director of Finance & Operations, and Director of Admission & Advancement.

Q: What curriculum is available and taught at your school?

A: Midland offers a UC-approved college preparatory program based on experiential and place-based learning. Being set on 2,860 acres of land, we use the landscape as a natural laboratory for exploration and discovery.

Q: What is your student to teacher ratio?

A: Midland has a 4:1 student to faculty ratio, and with almost all of our faculty living on campus students have a tremendous opportunity to interact with their teachers both in and out of the classroom.

Q: Can you describe a typical day for a student at your school?

A: A typical weekday starts out with a hot breakfast in Stillman Dining Hall around 7:15 am. All Midland students have daily jobs to contribute to the operations of the school, so after breakfast students might head off to help with horse crew, gather produce from the farm, or restock the firewood for the library’s cozy wood-burning stoves. Academic classes start at 8:30 am. The schedule is more similar to a college schedule, where students have some free periods to study or go back to their cabins between classes. 

Around noon, the whole community gathers daily for assembly. Announcements are shared and everyone heads into the dining hall for a farm-fresh lunch with an amazing salad bar. After lunch, students will be off for more classes or for Wednesday’s extended sports and activity block. On a typical Wednesday, students will be heading out surfing, going to the barn to work with our horses, or playing a sports game with other schools from the Condor League. 

Evenings are filled with family-style dinners, designated study time, and hangouts at faculty homes. On weekends, students are able to participate in events like Experiential Saturday or our speaker series. Sundays, after a sleep-in and a pancake breakfast, everyone pitches in to clean up the campus for a few hours during work period. Weekend afternoons are an excellent time to go for a long hike or bike ride, spend time in the woodshop, or hang out with friends.

Q: How does your school measure student progress?

A: Experiential courses are more standards-based with a focus on Midland’s Portrait of a Graduate core competencies. Core academic classes utilize traditional American grading methods (100-point system, A-F marks) while prioritizing standards and rubric-based assessment tools.

Q: What sports or extracurricular activities does your school offer?

A: For competitive sports, we offer volleyball, basketball, soccer, and cross-country running as part of the Condor League. Other sports and activities include horsemanship, farm & garden, outdoor leadership, FRSH (fitness-running-surfing-hiking), circus, and maintenance.

Q: How does your school address special education needs?

A: Midland is a supportive but not remedial nor therapeutic learning environment. Faculty are available to students in weekly office hours, but our educational setting requires student agency to avail themselves of the resources at hand.

While we have one learning support faculty who is available to work with all students on a drop-by basis, we are unable to support students who require on-going one-on-one tutoring or instruction (either subject-specific or executive functioning). In terms of accommodations, we work hard to support as many of students’ documented learning accommodations as we are able to at our scale (eg. priority seating and limited extended time for tests). We recognize that there are limits to what we can accommodate at our scale, and are available to clarify these on an individual basis if desired.

If you have any questions about applications or learning support options, please reach out to us at admissions@midland-school.org!

Q: What opportunities do you provide for parent involvement?

A: Midland is a boarding school, so families are located around California, the United States, and the rest of the world. Annual events where we invite everyone to come to campus include Thanksgiving in November and Alums, Parents and Friends Day in April. Parents who are able to visit campus may also offer their expertise to students in Experiential Saturday workshops or as part of our speaker series.

Q: What is the cost or tuition to attend your school? Do you offer scholarships?

A: Annual tuition is $73,900. Midland is committed to being accessible to students of all economic means. For the 2023-24 academic year, Midland awarded over $1.4 million in need-based financial assistance to 48% of the student body. The priority deadline for consideration is February 15th.

Q: Is there anything you would like to share that was not mentioned above?

A: Midland offers a unique college preparatory environment set on 2,860 acres of land. While offering academic disciplines through a lens of experiential learning, the school also operates a working ranch, an extensive trail system, and a 10-acre organic farm and garden. At Midland, 100% of our students are boarding students. The small school community of 80-90 students and our student to faculty ratio of 4:1 creates an environment where everyone knows each other by name, everyone is needed, and everyone is included in the community. 

To learn more about Midland School click here.