| School Name | Address | Phone | Grades | County | Type | District Name |
| Ernest Righetti High School | 941 East Foster Road
Santa Maria, CA 93455 | (805) 937-2051 | 9-12 | Santa Barbara | public | Santa Maria Joint Union High |
| Ethnic Background | Percent | Year |
| White, non-Hispanic | 46.19 | 2009 |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 1.38 | 2009 |
| Hispanic | 40.7 | 2009 |
| Asian | 3.81 | 2009 |
| Pacific Islander | 0.42 | 2009 |
| Native American or Native Alaskan | 0.8 | 2009 |
| Unspecified | 4.9 | 2009 |
| Filipino | 1.8 | 2009 |
| Students Getting Free Lunch | Year |
| 13% | 2009 |
| Date | Who | Comments |
| 8/4/2010 | parent | Righetti is a good school, the best public high school in our city. Since I attended over 20 years ago, it has become over-crowded, but all the high schools in our area are, and school officials are doing a pretty good job with the difficult position they are in. The one complaint I have is the teachers with tenure are to complacent, especially those who coach. My son plays 3 sports and there were horrible politics on every single team. Coaches/teachers should be held accountable and if they are not meeting expectations they should be replaced. It seems many of them have a very arrogant attitude as if they cannot be touched no matter how badly they treat their teams. Perhaps if their jobs were performance based they would do a better job teaching as well as coaching. |
| 11/4/2009 | parent | Great school for my kids even during this financial meltdown in California. My son is happy and he's being given a clear path to college so I am happy. |
| 9/20/2009 | parent | The teachers were great, the curriculum when I went there was broad and put together well. I enjoyed my four years there and wish those same great teachers the best. |
| 8/3/2009 | parent | Righetti was selected as a California Distinguished School for good reason: The staff has workded very hard to implement innovative teaching strategies aligned with content standards. They have worked on developing professional learning communities to improve insturction, assessment and student outcomes. |
| 6/25/2009 | student | The parents/students that say this school is poor are likely just mad that their kids/they performed poorly. I just graduated from here and am going to Yale after four wonderful years at Righetti. If you enroll in the advanced classes, you will not get a 'bad teacher' of any sort. I took a few college prep courses and didn't get any bad teachers there either. My graduating class alone had about 13 acceptances to UCLA, 9 to UC Berekely, 1 to MIT, 1 to Caltech, 2 to Stanford, 1 to Columbia, 1 to Yale, and 1 to Rice (many other colleges, both private and public, also accepted students). Anyone that complains about this school is likely disappointed that it holds itself to a high standard by expecting students to take responsibility (reference to the parents complaining about their kids failing) and to do actual work, simple as |
| 12/2/2008 | student | Your Righetti High School experience is what YOU as an individual make it to be. Nothing will be handed to you on a silver platter, that's for sure. But if you want to get the best education you can get, you'll get it if you work for it. That's life. Nothing's going to get handed to you. The only problem with this school is that teachers and students are caught on a vicious cycle: Students aren't excited about learning because teachers aren't excited about teaching and vice versa. If it could all stop, the school would be a much better place. I personally like Righetti very much, and enjoy all of my classes, despite how many people don't enjoy it there. |
| 11/13/2008 | other | I was a student and it had very low standards for their education and they focused on having everyone in class no on having those who were there learn anything of use |
| 8/12/2008 | student | Im a student and I love it over their I made so much more friends then I ever had and a lot of the teachers are very supportive of their students helping them reach their goals or making them. |
| 6/1/2008 | student | Righetti is definitively going to get better as time proceeds. With our new solid administration, more organization will be established. Mr. Molina is working for the kids and is a good leader for Righetti. I would have to say that the staff is very friendly and that students with initiate will go far here. |
| 3/13/2008 | student | The school is definatley over crowded. Im a junior at righetti and have been here for every yrear but my freshman, and ive like the students, but not many of the teachers. They dont show that they care at all, and the administration is very non existant. You have to be a parent that is yelling or a asb student to ever get noticed in the office, and if you do get noticede, they act like your a criminal for even going in there. If i were a parent, i wouldnt send any student to this school. |
| 3/4/2008 | student | Being a senior at Righetti, I've seen almost everything here. Some of the teachers at the college prep level are a little weird, and sometimes have trouble managing the number of students they have. However, high school is the last opportunity that students have to learn to manage their own lives before it's no longer a choice. Most teachers are willing to discuss grades the moment they are asked, and are truly in it for the kids. If a parent doesn't know their child is failing, or that they're hanging out with the wrong crowd, it's because they're out of touch with their kid, not because of the school. That said, we have an excellent AP program, great athletics, help with college admissions is readily available from the very first year, and guidance techs are more than happy to help set you up with the right teachers if you ask. |
| 1/13/2008 | student | I'm a senior at Righetti, and I love it. It's a big school, so it's easier for lazy students to slack off and blame their teachers for their failing grades. But I've taken about half AP classes and half college prep, and I've never had a horrible teacher. You just need to know who to talk to about what classes you should take and what teachers are good. Of course every school is bound to have some bad teacher- that's why you need to do some research to see who's class to take. I've loved 90% of my teachers and most of the administrators. But if you're kid is a slacker or a trouble maker than they'll probably fall behind quickly. Send then to a therapist, not a different school. |
| 10/11/2007 | parent | Teachers have no time to inform parent's when a student is failing the class until report card day. By then it's either the end of the semester or to late to change the student to a different class. What I hear from teachers is that they have to many students. I would like to see some type of notice being sent out to parents when a student is failing the class or needs different placement. Why waste the students time and the teachers time when the class environment does not suit the student academic needs. Think of a system to inform parents when students are failing a class. I have always believed in early intervention. Inform the parents' as early as possible when a student is failing. Ms. Richardson math teacher was able to contact me and share her concerns. Problem was resolved. We need more teachers like Ms. Richardson. |
| 9/25/2007 | former student | Righetti is a mixed bag of good and bad teachers. If students put in the effort and enroll in the best classes (AP) they can get a great education. They have some good sports programs, especially water polo. |
| 9/1/2007 | parent | I never made any mistakes more than just sent my daughter to this school. If you do not want your kids to have future, never ever send anyone here. the environment was really bad. The teacher teaching Algebra 2 never cared to take extra little bit of time to teach them if they ever had any questions. He did not care, it is not his kid. My kid always got Straight A, until she attended this school and got a C. She behaved very badly out of norm because of peer pressure. Watch out the kids to be pregnant. |
| 1/17/2007 | parent | This is a ship with out a rudder. Administration is weak, school is overcrowded. This is a school that parents must be involved to insure even a moderate education for their child. |
| 10/25/2006 | former student | I went to Righetti because it was less crappy than the other schools. Righetti is still crappy though. Move so your kids don't have to go suffer. Get out while you still can! |
| 8/25/2006 | student | I am a senior at Righetti this year and have attended for the past year and a half. I have had wonderful teachers, especially in my junior year. I am so impressed with the Career Center at Righetti, the entire staff especially Mrs. Rios are so helpful with the college application and preparation process. Righetti is definitely the best in the Santa Maria Valley. |
| 4/22/2006 | parent | My first child graduated in 2005. His class went through five different administrators which was very difficult on them. Through that I felt the students themselves had enough motivation to survive the unstable administration. Unfortunately this is not true to the next tenure approaching graduation. I pulled my middle son from the school and enrolled him into a Charter program. I might add he is doing very successful and as a Junior, taking Jr. College courses. I feel this tenure of children are victims of financial and political battles. This negative attitude has spread like a disease to both the children and teachers. The classes are overcrowded and under taught. I am now researching a program for my third childs future. |
