About Us

Laguna Blanca is a not-for-profit EK-12 co-educational, college preparatory day school in Santa Barbara, CA. Building upon its 91-year tradition of academic excellence with new and innovative teaching methods and programs, Laguna Blanca provides students with a supportive community that promotes deeper learning and values life balance and well-being. With its thriving experiential learning; LEGO, STEM, TEDx, and arts programs; and competitive athletics with state-of-the-art facilities, students are offered a multitude of areas to explore their passions.

Opening its doors in the idyllic Santa Barbara alcove of Hope Ranch in 1933, Laguna Blanca’s initial student body consisted of 40 boys taught by six faculty members on a quiet six-acre campus. The school has since grown into two campuses — 35 acres in Hope Ranch and two in Montecito. Founded by pioneering headmaster Edward Selden Spaulding and three enterprising colleagues, the school became co-educational in 1942 and grew steadily until the end of the century, when the school acquired the second campus in Montecito to house Grades K-4. An Early Kindergarten program was successfully launched in 2014, and the Montecito campus was purchased in 2021. Both campuses continue to expand and adapt, hosting state-of-the-art technology while maintaining the quaint, classic setting historically enjoyed by students.