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Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences is a K-12 independent, progressive, coeducational day-school with two campuses, located a few blocks apart, in Santa Monica, California.
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Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences
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Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences is a K-12 independent, progressive, coeducational day-school with two campuses, located a few blocks apart, in Santa Monica, California.
Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences is a K-12 independent, progressive, coeducational day-school with two campuses, located a few blocks apart, in Santa Monica, California.
Founded in 1971 by Paul Cummins and Rhoda Makoff, Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences opened its doors in the fall of 1971, in three rented rooms in a Baptist church, with an initial enrollment of just over 30 students in seventh and eighth grades. Over the decades, it moved and expanded, now serving around 1,200 students in kindergarten through high school.
Crossroads School operates two campuses and a performing arts center. The Norton Campus houses the Crossroads Elementary School, the Joanie Martin Community Room, and the K-12 Sports Center for all grade levels of interscholastic athletic teams. The Norton Campus was endowed by Crossroads parent and entrepreneur Peter Norton.
The 21st Street Campus is located a few blocks away from the Norton Campus and houses the middle and upper schools, as well as administrative offices; a humanities building; a science education and research facility; the Sam Francis Gallery, named in honor of Crossroads parent and artist Sam Francis; the Stephen Morgan Middle School, named in honor a former Crossroads teacher who died from AIDS; and the Paul Cummins Library, named in honor of Crossroads' co-founder. On 22nd Street, the Bezdek Center for the Performing Arts hosts Crossroads' musical and theatrical events and productions.
Crossroads students represent 107 zip codes. 56% of students and 46% of faculty identify as people of color. One in four students receive some form of financial aid through the School’s Affordability Program. In 1991, Crossroads parent and A&M Records co-founder and musician Herb Alpert and his foundation established the Herb Alpert Endowment to provide merit and need-based student scholarships and to enhance student body diversity.
Crossroads Upper School participates in a full range of interscholastic athletics as a member of the CIF Southern Section. Teams include baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, beach volleyball, cross country, track, golf, and swimming.
The 2004 book Hollywood, Interrupted, by Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner, dedicated a large section to Crossroads; it depicted the school (and the celebrities who send their children there) in a negative light, focusing mainly on a handful of high-profile parents and "drug problems" stemming from the 1980s. The school was also featured in a May 2005 issue of Vanity Fair; like Breitbart's book, it also focused on the school's celebrity clientele.
In his 2023 biography, Elon Musk alleges that Crossroads teaches "full-on communism," and blames his daughter's transition, alleged communist ideology, and decision to cut him out of her life on Crossroads.
On the Dec. 11, 2025 episode of Amy Poehler’s podcast “Good Hang,” alumna Maya Rudolph said of Crossroads, “It was such a f…g great, creative, cool school. It was so punk and weird and artistic.”
On the Sept. 19, 2024 episode of the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” alumnus Jason Ritter said of Crossroads, “I really loved it. … There’s a class where we passed around a stick and talked about our feelings. It forced 14- and 15-year-olds to be like, ‘I guess this is what’s going on inside my heart and brain.’”
On the Mar. 24, 2025 episode of the podcast “The Diary of a CEO,” alumnus Evan Spiegel said about his introduction of the practice of Council at Snap, Inc., “Council is something that I stole from the school that I went to growing up called Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, which is quite a unique school…(Council) really creates an opportunity for people to listen to one another because you're taking turns going around the circle, but you get to know people in a very very different way and I saw how powerful it was…”
Source: Crossroads School (Santa Monica, California) (CC BY-SA)
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Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences Alumni Gwyneth Paltrow
Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences Alumni Gwyneth Paltrow
