Dear Parents, Students and Friends of Manzanita,
Greetings! Our admissions are open for Fall 2021, for all grades. In addition, we continue to accept select applications for transfer students this school year, for grades 3 through 8. If your child is struggling with remote learning, please contact us. You can scroll down to see a short video about our remarkable online school. Please complete an Admissions Inquiry if you would like further information about Manzanita School.
Also, you can read about Manzanita’s in-person reopening plans here. Our ongoing commitment is to return to the campus later this fall. Presently, Los Angeles County remains in California’s most restrictive Tier I due to community spread of COVID-19. This limits in-person learning to students with identified special needs. We update our reopening plans weekly, here, Additionally, if you have specific enrollment or application questions, please contact Eva Sanchez, our Admissions Coordinator at admissions@manzanitaschool.org.
This past Spring, Manzanita School launched a successful online program to tend our community during the stay-at-home orders. While many schools could only sustain minimal contact and connections, Manzanita’s program was unique and robust. You can learn about that program here.
We continue to be inspired by the creativity, determination and compassion of our community. We are grateful to all our wonderful families for their resilience and flexibility in these unusual times. For general information, please contact info@manzanitaschool.org.
Our deep connections will continue to support our flourishing. Thank you.
-The Manzanita Team
WELCOME TO MANZANITA SCHOOL
Manzanita is an independent school located in Topanga Canyon, just outside of Los Angeles, California, serving grades 4 through 12. Manzanita was founded to provide the community a necessary counterpoint to the institutions and models available to educate our children.
Use this website to explore our philosophy and consider how an educational experience guided by mentorship and grounded by connection with nature can unlock the intrinsic gifts within adolescents.
While our model is informed by human history, our story is shaped by our community and the new story we will build together. We are excited to take this journey together with your family.
OUR SIX GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Move cursor over icons to learn moreTHE NEW STORY: A STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
Watch Manzanita 7th, 8th and 9th graders (2014-15) perform an original spoken word/dance inspired by the content they studied in the classroom throughout the course of the year.
"What powerful work you are doing in creating Manzanita for these young students and their families. I thought of my own experience of 8th grade in 1963. It made me realize we are moving into a new era of human history in that the gap between my education and what you are providing is greater than the gap between my education and what they taught in the 16th century. Truly a massive shift, one that is fully embodied in your work."
- Evolutionary Cosmologist Brian Swimme
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
