Santa Rosa City Schools: Herbert Slater Middle School

Santa Rosa City Schools is the largest school district in Sonoma County, California, located about an hour north of San Francisco.

Santa Rosa City Schools was founded in 1858 with 50 students. Today, we welcome nearly
16,000 students to our 24 schools, including nine elementary schools, five middle schools, five high schools, and one continuation high school. We also have four dependent charter schools, including French and Spanish immersion schools, a K-8 charter school for the arts, and a nationally recognized accelerated charter school.

In 2016, Santa Rosa City Schools received the Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association in the category of School Climate and Safety, for the district’s Equity and Social Justice Initiative. The primary goal of the initiative is to accelerate the progress of our English Learners and Latino students and to close access gaps. Approximately 450  teachers and staff have received unconscious bias training, provided by the CTA Office of Civil Rights. About 650 of our teachers and staff also have attended trainings at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, as part of a grant from the museum. The district has included District English Learners Advisory Committee (DELAC) parents and community leaders in the equity training opportunities as they are important partners in this effort. This award recognizes the work that we have been doing as a district to understand who we are as a community, and to better serve all students and families.