Cate School
Cate School | |
---|---|
Carpinteria , United States | |
Coordinates | 34°24′18″N 119°28′39″W / 34.405005°N 119.4773809°W |
Information | |
Type | Independent, Day & Boarding |
Motto | Servons (Let Us Serve) |
Established | 1910 |
Head teacher | Benjamin D. Williams IV |
Enrollment | 270 |
Color(s) | Blue and White |
Athletics | Tri-County Athletic Association |
Mascot | Rams |
Website | www.cate.org |
Cate School is a highly selective, coeducational
History
Beginnings
Cate School was founded in 1910 by Curtis Wolsey Cate, a 25-year-old graduate of Roxbury Latin School and Harvard University. Originally called the Miramar School, its classes were held in the Gane House, a leased private residence in Santa Barbara's Mission Canyon. (The Gane House, would be destroyed in the Jesusita Fire in 2009.[4]) A prep school for boys in grades 7 to 12, its first academic year enrolled 12 students.
In 1911, Cate moved his school to the Stewart Walcott Ranch in the Carpinteria Valley and renamed it the Santa Barbara School (or SBS).
In its early years, the school's buildings lacked heat, hot water, or electricity. SBS's first graduate was Dohrmann Pischel in 1914.[8]
In 1914, Cate accepted Walcott's offer to sell his 150-acre "mesa property", a former ostrich farm.[9] The school moved immediately to the southwest mesa slopes, and then again in 1929 to its current location atop a hill within the property near the Santa Ynez Mountains. The first permanent campus buildings on the Cate Mesa were designed between 1928 and 1929 by architect Reginald Davis Johnson, son of the school's first president of the board of trustees, Episcopal bishop Joseph Horsfall Johnson.[10] Campus buildings have since been designed in keeping with Johnson's original Monterey Colonial style.[11]
Cate-Thacher Rivalry
Cate's total enrollment had increased to 40 in 1919,
Adversity
The Great Depression and
Legacy of "The King"
The Santa Barbara School was renamed the Cate School to honor the headmaster upon his retirement in 1950.[8]
As
Sexual abuse
In 2020 and 2021, Cate was rocked by allegations of faculty sexual abuse of students going back decades. As well, a newly-hired faculty member attempted to seduce a female student in 2020. Dismissed, he was arrested the next year for further improprieties at another school.
Academics
As of 2012, the academic curriculum had 101 courses with more than 40 advanced and honors courses. The average class size was 11 with a 5:1 student-faculty ratio.[20] The school also allows independent study projects through the directed studies program and science research courses.[21]
Freshmen and sophomores are required to take courses in English, History, Art, Mathematics, Science, and Human Development, as well as a foreign language with which the student is not already familiar. Juniors and seniors can choose from over 35 elective courses such as Oceanography, Comparative Government, and Film Studies.
From 2009-13, the most popular college selections of Cate graduates were New York University, University of Southern California, University of Chicago, and Stanford University.[22]
In 2016, Niche ranked Cate School the 12th-best private school in the nation,[23] Business Insider ranked it 16th (and fourth-most selective),[24] and toptestprep.com ranked it 13th.[25]
Activities
All students are involved in an extracurricular program that includes athletics, drama, music, dance, community service and an extensive outdoors program which allows students to engage in many activities such as taking students surfing, sea kayaking, surf-kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, mountain biking, and rafting.
Interscholastic athletic teams compete in squash, water polo, lacrosse, tennis, cross country, volleyball, football, soccer, basketball, track, baseball, softball, and surfing. Intramurals include ultimate frisbee, weight training, Tae Kwan Do, dance, and the aforementioned outdoors program.
In addition to the usual clubs and activities, Cate includes a 24-page newspaper, El Batidor, a drama society that produces several productions each year, a literary magazine, The Cate Review, and numerous musical groups that perform in concert and in what are known as "coffee house" presentations. Other sample clubs include: Mock Trial, the Pirate Club (ARRR), Junior Statesmen of America, the Martial Arts Club, Blue Crew, the Black Student Union (BSU), Ross Robins Club for Equality (RRCE), and the Film Society.
Cate School is home to a Student-Faculty Senate. The only official legislative body on campus[a], the Student-Faculty Senate is composed of both elected senators and appointed officials and deals with legislation concerning all aspects of community life. The senate is chaired by the Student Body President, the only official elected by a community-wide vote. Student senators are elected by their respective classes. Two others systems the school has in place are the Prefect and Teaching Assistant (T.A.) programs. Prefects are elected at the end of their junior year by students and faculty to serve as leaders, role-models, and "big brothers and sisters" in the dorms. T.A.s work with the Human Development department in their Sophomore and Freshman Seminars.
Students are also involved in service projects in the community. Students help tutor local schoolchildren, visit with the elderly and disabled, and work on local environmental improvement projects. Faculty and students also travel regularly to northern Mexico to work on community construction projects and help with children and their families in the Los Niños program, a Cate tradition for more than 30 years. Through the international Round Square network students also have an opportunity to travel abroad for community service, work projects, and exchange programs.[26]
Notable alumni
Literature
- Barnaby Conrad, author, artist, and bullfighter. Later became Cate art teacher.
- Larry Niven, science fiction author (Ringworld)
Athletics
- LA Galaxy II
- Ema Boateng, professional footballer for the New England Revolution
- Tracye Lawyer-Thomas, American heptathlete
- Joshua Yaro, professional footballer for the Philadelphia Union
Academia
- James S. Ackerman, prominent architectural historian, author, and Harvard University professor
- Dayton Hyde, author and conservationist
- Antony Garrett Lisi, author of An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything
- Mark Whitney Mehran, author, land speed racer, hot rod and chopper builder
- Burton Smith, computer architect and Technical Fellow at Microsoft
- George Ledyard Stebbins, leading evolutionary biologist
- Bill Andrews, molecular biologist known for his work on curing aging.
- Warren C. Breidenbach III, surgeon known for having performed the first long-term successful hand transplant surgery
Television and music
- Bravo TV personality Newlyweds: The First Year.
- Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)
- Conrad Hall, Academy Award winning cinematographer (American Beauty, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
- Werner Klemperer, actor/musician, best known for his role as Colonel Klink in the 1970s television show Hogan's Heroes
- Stephen Malkmus, musician, formerly of the band Pavement
- Catherine Reitman, television and film actress
- Terry Sanders, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker
- Grammy Award winning songwriter (Like a Virgin, True Colors)
- Newsradio
- Chris Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie Records and music preservationist
Business and politics
- Sir John Bond, former Chairman and CEO of HSBC
- Otis Chandler, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times
- Lewis Nixon, United States Army officer in World War II
- William Matson Roth, 2nd United States Trade Representative, shipping executive, regent of the University of California, director of the American Civil Liberties Union, and preservationist
- Malcolm Wallop, U.S. Senator from Wyoming
Notes
- ^ The Cook House West dormitory has historically been governed by a student-run judicial body.
References
- ^ "Information for International Students". Cate School. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
- ^ "Admission". Cate School.
- ^ "2022 Cate School Rankings". Niche. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ "A Moving History: Historical buildings at Cate School". Edhat - Santa Barbara.
- ^ a b Redmon, Michael (September 27, 2006). "Q: 'How old is Cate School?'". Santa Barbara Independent.
- ^ "Some Thoughts on a Great Thacher Teacher And on Schools Old and New, East and West". The Thacher School. December 15, 2011.
- ^ Conviser, Josh. "Prep 101". Santa Barbara Magazine.
- ^ a b "History - More Than A Century of Tradition". Cate School. Archived from the original on August 11, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Conrad, Barnaby (August 30, 1987). "The Olympian Mr. Cate". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Mr. Cate's School: A Seventy-Five Year History, 1910-1985. (1984). Carpinteria, CA:Cate School Historical Society
- ^ "Campus and Facilities". Cate School. Archived from the original on August 11, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
- ^ a b "Cate's Early Days". Cate School. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
- ^ "The 50 Most Elite Boarding Schools In The US". Business Insider.
- ^ "Sunset Ceremony". Cate School. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
- ^ Stanley D. Woodworth, Glad to Remember, Cate School, 1960-1985
- ^ "After private school teacher arrested, California parents in the dark: 'Where's the truth?'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
- ^ "Report Concerning Complaints of Faculty-Student Sexual Misconduct" (PDF).
- ^ "Sexual abuse allegations at elite Carpinteria boarding school prompt sheriff's investigation". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
- ^ "Cate School Therapy Fund". Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
- ^ Cate School Quick Facts Archived April 22, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Cate School. Retrieved August 2, 2013
- ^ "Independent Study". Cate School. Archived from the original on July 5, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
- ^ "College Matriculation & School Profile". Cate School. Archived from the original on May 18, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
- ^ "Best Private High Schools In America"
- ^ "The 50 most elite boarding schools in America". Business Insider. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ^ "Best Boarding School Rankings". toptestprep.com. Top Test Prep. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ^ "Life at Cate." Cate School. Retrieved from http://www.cate.org/life Archived September 23, 2013, at the Wayback Machine on August 2, 2013.
External links
- Cate School website
- The Association of Boarding Schools profile
- Cate School on Boarding School Review