Rancho Cotate High School

I have two students in 10th grade and I teach in the district. I had always heard the reputation of Rancho so was nervous about going there but I am so glad we did! There is never anything that is perfect but my girls are incredibly happy there and are learning and growing. They are AP and Honors classes along with being in clubs and on teams. We have had wonderful teachers who have encouraged my girls. They feel safe at school and have never had an issues with bullying, drugs or gangs. I cannot recommend Rancho enough.

The school severely lakes school spirit to the point of little to no school spirit. School government is a joke, presidents quit, no one runs for the positions, when there are meetings, people don't show up, just because its not important enough. The level of teaching is far superior to other schools, most other schools in the area (more on this at the end). Teachers have no authroity from the principal and students can sway the actions taken. THIS IS AN OFF CAMPUS lunch school which brings itself to the lack of school spirit. Allowing everyone to leave school, go get lunch or go get stoned defiantly helps the disconnect within the school. Most teachers are nice, some are good. But there are also several teachers who QUIT on the first day of school leaving other teachers left to take on classes they are (barely) qualified to teach. The office staff is in their own world, annoyed with students and questions. There is no leadership from the principal and vice principals, even though they have several! While the attempt at RCHS was made, ultimately with so many issues and the fact that the the education level hovers around 8th or 9th grade, disguised by being a junior, sophomore of even a senior, transferring to a different school in the Sonoma County area proved to be a true asset to my future. Moving to a different schools immediate effect was the level that work was being done, it was challenging! Going from 15 minutes of homework in an HONORS class to 2-3 hours of homework! The comparison is not in a different grade, it is that other schools are teaching at a truly higher level and expecting more from their students. The end result is students at Rancho are destine for a mediocre education at best. The school is heavily flawed. The decline of the school started 1-2 decades ago, the recovery from this is painfully slow and students are suffering, but they dont know it. In the real word, when a Rancho student moves on to college, they are in for a wake up call. The only hope at Racnho is to be in sports and be GOOD at that sport. There is a lot of value in their sports programs and those in them basically get anything they want.To be clear, this is a school to avoid. Do your homework parents and compare to PHS, CASA, MHS, SRHS, WHS. The difficulty will be in transporting your student to the school, it sill be hard at times. The truth hurts.

This school has sharply declined over the last four years. Staff morale is low, which effects student morale. Teachers have chronic absenteeism, and often fail to have substitute teachers to cover their classes. If I could do it all over again, I would send my daughter to a better school.

We've had a positive experience at RCHS. Our son has excelled and is off to college this fall.