The Marin School

What The Marin School does

The Marin School (TMS) was a private, nonprofit college preparatory high school located in San Rafael, California, that served college-bound high school students primarily drawn from Marin County. Founded in 1980 as North Bay Secondary School (NBSS), the institution underwent multiple rebrandings — becoming North Bay Marin School and finally The Marin School in 2002 — and legally separated from North Bay Orinda School (now Orinda Academy) in 1998. TMS operated with intentionally small class sizes (average 8 students) and a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio, differentiating on personalized instruction, neurodiversity support, experiential learning, and whole-student development rather than on technology infrastructure. The school maintained no digital product platform, no app, no API, and no disclosed technology stack beyond a Wix-hosted marketing site and alumni-oriented LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

The business model was a single-product, direct-enrollment model: families paid tuition and enrolled students through the school's admissions process, with demand generated almost entirely through community reputation and word-of-mouth within Marin County. Distribution was physical-only through campus relocations from Mill Valley (original site) to Sausalito (2004-2013) to San Rafael (2013-2023). There were no named institutional customers, no partnerships, no funding rounds, no M&A activity, no patents or trademarks, and no public revenue disclosures. Headcount was reported at 101-250 employees historically, and Ben Griggs served as Head of School from 2020 to closure.

After 43 years of operation, the Board of Trustees announced the permanent closure of TMS at the conclusion of the 2022/2023 academic year. The school's mailing address remains a San Rafael PO Box for transcript requests and employee verification, and the entity has no operating revenue, no active enrollment, and no forward strategic agenda.

Name

The Marin School

Legal name

The Marin School

Website

https://themarinschool.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1980

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The Marin School was a private, nonprofit college preparatory high school in San Rafael, California, serving Marin County students with small classes (average 8) and a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio. The school permanently closed at the end of the 2022/2023 academic year after 43 years.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Private Secondary Education

NAICS

Elementary and Secondary Schools (6111)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYEDAJABAE

Waldorf/Steiner K–12 Schools

Education/K–12 / Primary & Secondary Education/Private & Independent K–12 Schools

Keywords

• Private high school education
• College preparatory programs
• Personalized learning services
• Experiential secondary education
• Neurodiversity supportive schooling

Headquarters

HQ city

San Rafael

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

The Marin School provided a college preparatory high school program serving grades 9-12 through a single physical campus, characterized by small class sizes (8 average), a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio, experiential learning opportunities, and a collaborative community culture. The school focused on personalized education for college-bound students, including those not thriving in traditional public school settings and neurodiverse learners. The institution permanently closed at the conclusion of the 2022/2023 academic year after 43 years of operation.

Product overview

The Marin School was a single, unified college preparatory high school educational program. The school offered a personalized, collaborative learning experience characterized by small class sizes (8 average), a 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio, experiential learning, and a focus on both academic excellence and whole-student development. The institution served as a standalone educational offering without modular products, add-ons, or a platform-plus-modules architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Marin School (TMS) College Preparatory High School Program A college preparatory high school program for grades 9-12, serving college-bound students in Marin County, California. Delivered through a single physical campus with personalized teaching (average class size of 8, 6:1 student-to-teacher ratio), experiential learning, neurodiversity support, and a collaborative community culture. The school permanently closed at the end of the 2022/2023 academic year after 43 years of operation.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Direct peers

• Orinda Academy: Former sister school under the shared North Bay nonprofit until the 1998 legal split; small independent college-prep school in the East Bay with a similar small-classes, individualized-learning mission, making it the most direct historical analog to TMS.
• San Domenico School: Independent K-12 school in Marin County offering college preparatory curriculum including upper school grades; directly comparable local competitor serving the same Marin County families.
• Convent of the Sacred Heart: Independent Catholic K-12 high school in San Francisco serving the same Bay Area private-school market as TMS with overlapping tuition band and family demographic.
• The Athenian School: Independent college-prep day and boarding school in Danville, CA whose experiential, individualized learning philosophy closely parallels TMS's pedagogical approach.
• Head-Royce School: Independent K-12 college-prep school in Oakland, CA, covering similar grade spans and serving Bay Area private-school families with stronger resources and broader curricular depth.
• Bentley School: Independent K-12 college-prep school in Lafayette, East Bay, with comparable curriculum, tuition scale, and student demographic to TMS.
• Marin Academy: Independent college-prep high school in San Rafael, CA—the same city as TMS's final campus—serving overlapping Marin County families with similar tuition and curriculum profile.
• Lick-Wilmerding High School: Private college-prep high school in San Francisco serving Bay Area families with a small-school, individualized-learning model and mission framing highly comparable to TMS.
• Bay School of San Francisco: Independent college-prep high school in San Francisco with a small, personalized model and an explicit focus on individualized learning, critical thinking, and student agency closely aligned with TMS's mission.
• The Branson School: Independent college-prep high school in Ross, Marin County, with comparable small-school, values-driven educational model and tuition scale within TMS's primary service area.

Market position

Strengths2 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/TheMarinSchool
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/3009848
• Xx.com/themarinschool

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Marin School