Original Research by School Decision on Redwood Collegiate Academy District
Redwood Collegiate Academy District is a small charter district in Mendocino County serving grades seven through twelve. The district operates a single school, Redwood Collegiate Academy, with an enrollment of roughly one hundred thirty students spread across the middle and high school grades. The enrollment decreases noticeably in the upper grades, with substantially fewer students in grades eleven and twelve than in the lower middle school grades.
The student body is mixed in composition. Close to half the enrollment is white, while a little more than a third are Hispanic. The remainder are distributed across Asian, two-or-more-races, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native identities. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and English learner or special education populations were not available for the district.
State assessment results and the four-year graduation rate were not provided in available data, which makes it difficult to characterize academic performance directly. The district's performance context at the state level cannot be assessed from the information at hand. A parent interested in understanding how the school's students perform on state tests or how many graduate on time would need to contact the school or district directly for those metrics.
The district does compare favorably on chronic absenteeism within Mendocino County. At roughly one quarter of students, the chronic absenteeism rate is well below the county median and sits in the top quartile among the county's districts, suggesting strong student attendance and engagement. Conversely, per-pupil current spending in the district runs in the lower range compared to other county districts. The district spends less per student than the county median, which may reflect its size and charter model or may relate to staffing, facilities, or program scope; the data does not specify how those dollars are deployed.
The district is located in or near Ukiah, Mendocino County's largest town, which sits in a wine-producing region in the North Coast. Housing and economic context for the specific service area were not available in the data provided. No information was available on recent district changes, operational priorities, or specific program offerings beyond the existence of the school itself.
For a family considering Redwood Collegiate Academy, the picture is one of a small, tight-knit charter serving the middle and high school grades in a rural county setting. The strong attendance rate suggests an engaged school community. The school's actual course offerings, pedagogical approach, college-preparation pathway, and extracurricular environment would be important to explore directly with the school, as those details were not available here. The relatively low per-pupil spending may or may not be a concern depending on how the school structures its program and what families are seeking.
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