St. Michael’s is a Orthodox Christian elementary school in southwest Santa Rosa, in beautiful Sonoma County, California. Some of our children's parents have said that it is the "best kept secret of Sonoma County". The school was established in 1994 and is deliberately small. We generally have between 12 and 18 students.  With three very experienced teachers, the children receive a well-rounded education, filled with art, poetry, practical work experience and loving attention.

Although, we have never presented ourselves as an highly academic school, our emphasis on Christian values and personal relationships have resulted in graduates who have been very successful in their high school studies. Many of them have been placed in Advance Placement courses in high school, or have immediately started taking junior college courses at Santa Rosa Junior College. The pictures on this page are from the first half of the 2001-2012 school year.

For a limited time, we are offering our latest book, A Careful Look at the Evidence, What Orthodox Christians Need to Know About the Theory of Evolution, as a free download.  Although this book does include several Scriptural and Patristic texts that would argue against evolution, the mean purpose of the book is to challenge the idea that accepting evolution is being "science-friendly".  Many Christians do not realize how unfriendly evolutionary theory is to real science.  More details are available in The School Store section of the web site.

The Who's Who in the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

In the first week of Great Lent and again in the fifth week, we read a beautiful Canon composed by St. Andrew of Crete.  Many names from the Old Testament are mentioned.  In order to get the most benefit from the Canon, it is important to know at least something about the people he names.  This lecture, written many years ago, will hopefully help us modern Orthodox who often do not know the Old Testament very much.  Click here for the lecture.

As part of what we call our "Morning Opening", we gradually learn a psalm and a poem.  After our simple morning prayers, the student read the psalm and poem we have printed in large font and posted on the wall.  On Wednesday and Friday, we provide "recitation opportunities" for those who would like to recite, from memory, as much of the Psalm or poem as they can.  Gradually all the children learn both the Psalm and the poem.

Once again one of our graduates told us that he already knew the poems being taught in his high school "poetry class".  He had learned the poems in a very organic way during our "morning opening".

Children thrive and develop in a warm, personal setting and this is the atmosphere we maintain at St. Michael's. Some have called it "the next best thing to home schooling."  While larger educational institutions work on the factory model of education, St. Michael's values the less institutional, more personal teacher-student relationship model. This approach has been very fruitful.  We expect the highest from each student and the students are challenged to fulfill their God-given abilities.  Yet, the children are measured according to their ability, not to the ability of others.

Although we are an Orthodox Christian school, not all students are Orthodox Christians. They have come from many backgrounds.

In 2006, our local paper, The Press Democrat, ran a short article about our church and school. They described the property as "a sanctuary of swaying trees and tidy buildings, a 2-acre island of tranquility." Many people who visit tell us that they "never knew this church and school were here". Please visit the church's web site at holydormitionchurch.org.

We hope that parents who may be interested in St. Michael's will get a good sense of the spirit of the school through this site, especially the sections History and Philosophy, Articles on Education, and Newsletters.

If you have any questions about the school, please contact us at 707-545-0861 or jkhughes@stmichaelschool.us.

The parents of our students are working together to produce a newsletter at least once a year. To see the latest one, click here.  We also have PDF files of newsletters produced in previous years.  You may find these in the Newsletters section of the web site.

We also hope that other parents and teachers can benefit from our combined 50+ years experience, both in homeschooling and in a classroom setting.