Rancho Solano Preparatory School operates with a general environmental focus on
fostering curiosity, discovery, collaboration, and inspiration (Rancho Solano, 2015). Rancho
Solano is geared towards providing the perfect environment for their students to flourish
academically. Their objective is to insure students are prepared to excel beyond their peers in a
university environment. The school’s culture is based on providing highly individualized
education for each student, as well as providing a diverse and vibrant community. Students are
given the opportunity to participate in specialized academic enrichment programs, and have
access to the school’s state of the art facilities and technology (Rancho Solano, 2015). The school
also has a diverse group of students with a worldwide international reach.
The new international focus of an emerging interconnected world has lead to a major
change, as described by Rancho Solano’s head of school Audrey Menard (Creno, 2014). This
change includes the closing of 2 of its valley campuses in Peoria and Gilbert, leaving only 2
remaining schools in Scottsdale. Parents of 430 students in both closing schools received letters
regarding the change with an attempt for the school to align with a changing market (Creno,
2014). The change will allow for a greater investment and focus towards a more personalized
approach to learning and new technologically advanced facilities. The founders of Rancho
Solano the Freemeyer family sold the Preparatory to the for-profit Meritas Family who have
schools in the US and abroad. New international students from abroad are being lured into
studying in the Scottsdale campuses, current students are encouraged to to study in other of
Meritas schools across the United States or abroad. The main purpose to the downsizing is to
improve the quality of education being provided, rather than an expansion of more schools with a
lack of resources for the numbers. This decision to consolidate Rancho Solano’s resources is a
smart business decision, since what it really says about the school is that the focus is not profit
rather academic excellence.
The way that the closure of the Rancho Solano schools located in Gilbert and Hillcrest
was done was rather poor. The timing of the closure made it so that many of those that had a
stake in the school now had no opportunities for the following school year. Other schools had
been filled with faculty, staff and students for the upcoming year so many of the previous
employees or attendees of these schools were put in an incredibly hard spot. The closing of the
schools diversely affected the former employees, the parents, and the students attending the
school.
Meritas, the owner of Rancho Solano Preparatory Schools, did not demonstrate an
adequate amount of social responsibility. When it comes to current employees of the company,
