Whitney Hoyt Hopes to Close Marin City Achievement Gap

Assistant Principal Whitney Hoyt will be leaving this year to join a Marin City non-profit.

Hoyt will become the educational director of Bridge the Gap College Prep, the Marin County non-profit group which serves Marin City students through tutoring and after-school programs.

 “I am looking forward to working with Bridge the Gap and their great team of dedicated staff and volunteers to help close the achievement gap of Marin City students,” she said.

The 51-year-old San Rafael resident will help lead Bridge the Gap College Prep’s program growth, and work closely with Sausalito and Marin City and Tamalpais Union High School Districts to support students.

“Whitney is well known and respected in the educational community for her work creating innovative school programs that focus on student support and success,“ said Executive Director Denni Brusseau. “Our staff, community and students are very fortunate to have someone with her pedigree and experience join our team.”

For more than 20 years, Hoyt has been a teacher, counselor and administrator in Marin’s public schools. She was a social studies teacher at Drake High School in San Anselmo, where she co-founded an integrative two-year educational program for freshman in 1992 known as ROCK (Revolution of Core Knowledge).

“Whitney was always so determined,” Redwood High School Principal Dave Sondheim said. Sondheim worked with Hoyt at Drake. “She could be brutally honest, but was also a team player.”

Before coming to San Rafael High School in 2008, Hoyt was principal of Mill Valley Middle School for five years, was dean of the Novato Unified School District for two years and served on the Sausalito Marin City School Board.

Hoyt also ran for a seat on the San Rafael City Council last year. She is currently finishing her fourth year as an assistant principal at San Rafael High.

Founded in 1995, Bridge the Gap College Prep provides educational support in a college preparatory culture to the academically at risk youth of Marin City. Through its after-school extended learning day and evening programs, it has increased the academic performance of over 300 Marin city students — improving their literacy and math skills, self-esteem, and their ability to succeed in high school and college.