As a community of faith inspired by Christian values and celebrated in Catholic tradition, St. Bonaventure High School fosters a shared dedication to living faith, engaging hearts, enlightening minds, achieving excellence and transforming lives. We commit to the education of the whole person, entrusting to each student the values, knowledge, and wisdom to witness the call to serve and transform the world.

Lord, be ever my hope and my whole confidence, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, and my joy.  Be my rest, my peace, my sweetness and my delight.  Be my spiritual enjoyment, my food and refreshment.  Be my refuge and my help, my wisdom, my reward, my possession, and my treasure, in whom my mind and my heart may ever remain fixed and firm now and forever.  Amen.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles founded the school in 1963 with 70 students. Over the years, members of both the Sisters of Notre Dame and the Franciscan order have provided leadership and instruction. In 1782 Father Junipero Serra established a mission in the area now known as Ventura, naming the mission San Buenaventura, after the Franciscan priest and scholar Bonaventure. Over the next 100 years, people began to move to and live in the area around the mission, and in 1887 the city of San Buenaventura was formed.

In 1963 St. Bonaventure High School was established in the city of San Buenaventura, more popularly known now as the city of Ventura. The school was named in honor of St. Bonaventure, the patron of the city, whose work as a philosopher and theologian during the Middle Ages earned him the title of Seraphic Doctor; hence the school mascot of Seraph, the highest order of angels.

St. Bonaventure's first student body consisted of 70 freshmen that started classes in partially completed buildings in September 1963. The teaching staff, headed by Sister Mary St. Lawrence, was composed of five Sisters of Notre Dame, with lay men and women to supplement the faculty as needed. In September 1966 the Franciscan Brothers were added to the faculty and administration.

In September 1966, St. Bonaventure became a complete four-year co-educational high school with an enrollment of 264 students. Reverend Thomas Meskill became the new Principal, serving from 1966 to 1976. The school's Alma Mater, composed by Claire Miller of Santa Paula, one of the school's original graduates, was sung for the first time in the 1966/67 school year.

Father Meskill was followed as principal by Brother Hilarion O’Connor from 1976 to 1979. Brother Thomas Fahy became Principal in September 1979 and was succeeded by Brother Paulinus Horkan, Principal from 1986 to 2007. Mr. Marc Groff was appointed the first lay Principal in the school's history in May 2007. Under their guidance, the school grew in enrollment, curriculum, and facilities, displaying excellence in academics, athletics, and service to the community.

Mrs. Christina Castro (Class of 1986) was selected by the Department of Catholic Schools to be Principal in June 2019 and will continue to guide the school's growth and maintain Saint Bonaventure High School's excellence in academic, extra-curricular, service and athletics programs.

Currently, approximately 440 students from all areas of Ventura County and southern Santa Barbara County attend Saint Bonaventure High School.