We do expect to hold school as scheduled tomorrow. We have also dedicated time this week to prepare for the impacts of the storm, including trimming trees in Hope Ranch, clearing drains, and testing our communication systems across our two campuses.

Sponsorships confirmed by end of day on Friday, February 24 will appear

PEUS FAMILY · RICE FAMILY · REBECCA AND ARI RYAN · KBZ ARCHITECTS · ASHER FAMILY · BALL FAMILY · BERG FAMILY

NEW THIS YEAR! ONLINE AUCTION OPENS AFTER THE EVENT AT 12:01AM ON MARCH 12

CLICK HERE to donate today!

Please contact the development office. We look forward to seeing you on March 11!

Summer @ Laguna priority registration opens tomorrow, February 24 at 9AM and will be open through Monday, February 27 at 11:59PM! General registration begins on Wednesday, March 1.

Please reach out to Zack Moore if you have any questions.

Enjoy a highlight reel of this impressive annual event by clicking the arrow above!

Grade 11 students Magdalena Amezaga, Lucia Camp, and Andreas McClintock represented Laguna Blanca over the weekend at the Global Leadership Connection at Santa Barbara City College. Over 70 students represented schools from throughout the county.

Andreas was awarded Youth Leader of the Year, winning the Busch Family Scholarship and received an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, DC in October to attend the GLC Leadership Experience with student winners from other chapters. Lucia was awarded an ambassador scholarship of $100.

“This is a wonderful program for our juniors and a first step in preparing them for the college application process,” says journalism, public speaking, and community service advisor Ms. Trish McHale.

The first round of the Poetry Out Loud SB County Contest took place on Wednesday in Spaulding Theatre in front of the Upper School student body. Of the 13 Laguna students who participated at the school level, six went on to compete at the county level last night.

Congratulations to Poetry Out Loud SB County Contest 2nd Place winner Dionne Peterson '25 (pictured above!) Hats off to all Laguna participants who did an amazing job representing Laguna on the county level: Jared Sorensen '25, Carson Stewart '25, Maddie Becerra '25, Ada Green '25, and Sofia Ramirez '25!

By Eleanor Crafton '25

Last week, students in the two-year Humanities Research Program journeyed to LA to visit The Getty Center as a final hurrah within the first-year students’ (sophomores) “Art and The Arts” exploration unit, wherein each student studied an aspect of the art world. Guided around the museum on a “VIP Tour” with veteran docents, the students explored the architecture, photographs, and pre-20th-century European art for which the Getty Center is famous. The tenth grade students observed Rembrandt, Monet, and Van Gogh paintings, as well as Goya’s 1804 Portrait of the Marquesa de Santiago and contemporary photograph by Ananke Asseff, which are paired pieces in the Getty’s “In Dialogue” series.

“I was amazed at the passion our tour guide held for art,” says Sofia Ramirez '25. “She radiated excitement and I couldn’t wait to see the next painting. I love how she fully analyzed each art piece, interpreting the use of symbolism, color palette, and history—it was all incredible!”

After nearly five long months of legal preparation and working with local attorneys who volunteer their time, Laguna Blanca’s Mock Trial Team—a student club open to students in Grades 9-12—will compete this Saturday, February 25 in the annual all-day Santa Barbara County Mock Trial competition. This year, families are invited to attend the competition. Please note that Laguna Blanca is Team 2 (school names are not mentioned anywhere, so use this team number to find the right courtroom.) Please contact Teacher Coach Jessica Tyler for further information.

The students will serve as defenders, prosecutors, witnesses, clerk, and bailiff in a trial regarding Robbery and Battery: featuring a pretrial argument on the 4th Amendment.

Please note that tomorrow night's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever screening for Gr. 7-12 students is postponed due to inclement weather. Stay tuned for the rescheduled date from All Voices Heard and Ms. Chan!

Come enjoy delicious local wine with fellow Laguna families at Margerum on Tuesday, February 28! The event will take place at the Margerum Tasting Room downtown (19E Mason Street) from 5-7PM.

From Ms. Butler and Mrs. Delwiche, LEGO League Leaders:

Congratulations to our third and fourth graders for an amazing LEGO League presentation to conclude our season! The theme of this year’s First LEGO League was “Superpowered.” Students focused on the fundamentals of engineering as they explored real-world problems, learned to design and code, and created unique solutions made with LEGO bricks and powered by a LEGO Education robot. Our engineers explored the path energy takes as it is collected, distributed, stored, and used. Their builds focused on ways to innovate for a cleaner energy future for our community.

Students built model solar-powered buses, water-powered cars, and wind-powered vehicles. Well done to all our teams: “The Super Apples” (Sophia and Mark), “The Tearing Tigers” (Catherine, Alice, Jacob, and Henry), “The Super Owls” (Rio, Sebastian, Tucker, and Quincy), “The Extraterrestrial Wolves” (Izzie, Simone, and Hunter) and “The Speed Demons” (River and Shane). Congratulations on a great season!

The first grade class closed out their arctic unit last week after studying caribou, polar bears, arctic hares, foxes, and penguins. First graders took a virtual trip to the Ice Festival in Harbin, China and were amazed at the illuminated city! They created polar bear snow globes and watched the Northern Lights as we wrote for the Daily Gazette. Videos posted on SeeSaw with “Breaking News” feature snowmen on night-time adventures!

Lower School students will be “100 days smarter” next Tuesday, February 28 when we celebrate our 100^th day of the school year! Students have been compiling collections of 100 items, and the day will end with a tour of each classroom to see the collections. In addition, there will be cupcakes at lunchtime for our 100 students to enjoy!

Next month, our Third Grade presents its much-loved play, The Greatest Americans of the 20^th Century!

Third Grade families are invited to join us on Wednesday, March 15 at 9:30AM at the Lower School Pavilion for the performance.

It's the greatest awards show ever seen on TV, for the greatest Americans of the 20th century! Statesmen, artists, athletes, musicians, scientists, and many more are honored in a prime-time presentation (complete with commercials). Where else can you see Henry Ford rap? Students are introduced to many of the major figures in modern American history in a fun and tuneful show.

Friday, February 24 at 9AM

Friday, February 24

Tuesday, February 28

Wednesday, March 1 (9AM)

Tuesday, March 7 - Wednesday, March 8

Thursday, March 9

Tuesday, March 14

Third Grade Presents The Greatest Americans of the 20^th Century

Monday, March 20 - Friday, March 31

Friday, April 14

Tutors Across America will provide an ACT/SAT Boot Camp over the dates of March 24–26 at Bishop Diego High School.

    

Current high school students and parents/guardians are invited to register for the 2023 Summer Pre-College Opportunities Fair on Saturday, February 25 from 7AM-9:30AM PST. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with representatives from leading US colleges and universities to learn more about Summer 2023 academic programs for high school students. 

Questions? Please contact [email protected]

Where There Be Dragons offers immersive summer and gap year programs for students aged 15-22 seeking an alternative to mainstream travel. Small group adventures are mentored by expert instructors and offer homestays, language learning, rugged travel, and more! Programs are offered in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and North America.

Madeleine Colvin is an experienced instructor with Where There Be Dragons and is excited to share about these immersive travel programs! Stop by her table to learn more, or reach out to her via email.

UPPER SCHOOL