Encyclopedia
Albuquerque Academy is a private co-educational school for grades six through twelve located in
Albuquerque,
New Mexico, USA. It is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest and the New Mexico State Department of Education. Albuquerque Academy is also a member of the National Association of Independent Schools. It is not to be confused with Albuquerque High School, the first high school established in Albuquerque, which was originally named Albuquerque Academy.
Albuquerque Academy is split into three different divisions: the six-seven division , the eight-nine division, and the ten-twelve division .
History
Albuquerque Academy was founded in 1955 as a school for boys in the basement of a small Albuquerque church by William B. S. Wilburn. The school was eventually moved into a facility that is today used by Sandia Preparatory School, and was headed by Rev. Paul G. Saunders from 1960-1964. Between 1957 and 1964, the Academy received a large tract of undeveloped land north of Albuquerque from the Albert G. Simms family. The land from Wyoming Blvd. to the
Rio Grande river was sold to finance the creation of the current campus and the first endowment fund. Ashby Harper was the headmaster from 1964 to 1985. The land east of the campus to the crest of the
Sandia Mountains was sold later in a series of deals. First the section from the campus to Juan Tabo Blvd. was sold to create a second trust. Later, the City of Albuquerque attempted to facilitate a deal to sell the remainder to the
Bureau of Land Management by putting up a parking garage as collateral. The deal fell through and the Academy became the garage owner while still retaining the
Bear Canyon area . Later,
The Nature Conservancy successfully facilitated a deal transferring part of the land to the City and the other part to the BLM, with the proceeds creating a third endowment. The endowments are used to deflect the cost of tuition for families who meet financial needs tests.
The school remained an all-boys school until 1973, at which time girls were allowed into grades 9-12, the "Senior School". Part of the reason for the delay in allowing girls and for the gradual inclusion was that the Simms grant specified that the number of boys not decrease in order to make room for girls. At that time, the "Junior School" included grade 5-8. Girls were allowed into the lower school in 1984, and the 5th grade was dropped in 198?. Robert Bovinette was headmaster from 1985 to 1996, Timothy McIntire was headmaster from 1996 to 1999, Donald Smith was the interrim headmaster in 1999, and Andrew Watson was named headmaster in 2000.
Today, the Academy has an enrollment of just over 1,000 in grades 6 through 12, with students drawn from throughout the Albuquerque metropolitan area and the state of New Mexico. The Albuquerque Academy celebrated its 50th anniversary during the 2004-2005 school year with a year-long celebration of the school's history.
Facilities
The school sits on an approximately 312 acre gated campus in the northeastern part of the city, near the base of the
Sandia Mountains. It is divided into two campuses, the West Campus or lower school and the East Campus or upper school. The two campuses are separated by about a quarter of a mile, with the library, science building, and athletic fields in between. The school buildings conform to a consistent, Mediterranean-influenced architectural style, which incorporates
brick buildings, arches, and tile roofs.
West Campus
The West Campus comprises eight buildings including sixth and seventh grade classroom buildings, an administration building, a dining hall, and a gymnasium. In addition, the Visual Arts building and Natatorium are on the West Campus. All of the buildings except the Natatorium were designed by Robert McCabe of Flatow, Moore, Bryan, and Associates, and opened in 1984. The Natatorium was added to the West Campus Gymnasium in 1997.
Simms Library
The Dr. Albert G. Simms II and Barbara Young Simms Library is the Academy's most iconic building, housing the school's collection of over 100,000 books, periodicals, videos, and recordings. It is comprised of two wings that open onto a central lobby, with the fiction/nonfiction section housed in the larger north wing and reference materials in the east wing. The Library was designed by Alexander "Sandy" Howe of the
Boston firm of Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson, and Abbot and opened in 1991 along with the Science Building. The Library spire is the highest point on campus.
Science Building
The Science Building sits across from the Library on a brick plaza. It houses all of the Academy's science classrooms, labs, and faculty, as well as some teachers from other departments. The building is comprised of two classroom wings and two laboratory wings grouped around a square central courtyard. The main foyer houses a large
Foucault pendulum . The Science Building was also designed by Howe and opened at the same time as the Library.
East Campus
The East Campus currently houses grades 8-12. It includes the Academy's four original buildings, all grouped around a central quad: North Hall, the 8-9 classroom building, Brown Hall, the 10-12 classroom building, the Administration Building, which includes the office of the Head of School, and the gymnasium-dining hall complex. All were designed by Edward O. Holien of Holien and Buckley and completed in 1965. The Simms Center for the Performing Arts was designed by George Pearl, completed in 1975, and remodeled in 2000. The last building added to the East Campus was the Music Building, designed by Bill Sabatini of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and completed in 1996.
Athletic facilities
The Academy's largest sports facilities are Harper Memorial Stadium , the East Campus Gym , and the Natatorium . There are also several soccer,
baseball, and
softball fields, a 16-court
tennis complex, a
cross country course, a weight room, and basketball courts.
Bear Canyon
The Academy has a 270 acre tract in the Sandia Mountains called Bear Canyon, as well as other sites throughout the state, which are used to supplement the curriculum. The 7th grade student class goes to Bear Canyon for a week each year, and the 6th grade class takes day hikes in it.
Student body
The Academy devotes an entire day to diversity each year, called Diversity Day. This Day features a forum with music, dancing, and movies, a special lunch with foods from many different countries, and a long row of booths featuring Academy's many clubs. The school is roughly half boys and half girls, and nearly one third of the students have non-white backgrounds. The Academy also ranks among the top independent secondary schools with regard to need-blind financial aid offered to students, totaling nearly one-third of the student body.
Albuquerque Academy prides itself on its 8:1 student/teacher ratio.
Extracurricular activities
Extracurricular activities are an important part of the Academy experience. Some of the larger activities include many state championship sports teams,
The Advocate , the nationally ranked speech and debate team, Science Olympiad, and theater. In the spring of 2006, the orchestra, called the Chamber Players, was invited to attend the National Orchestra Fesitval in Kansas City, Missouri, where they received a superior rating. Students are able to submit proposals to the 10-12 Student Senate to create a new club or activity, which nearly always approves activities.
Another aspect of extracurricular activates are senior projects. Completed by all seniors at the end of their high school careers, the projects allow students to broaden their mind with topics outside of the school curriculum.
Rivalry
The Albuquerque Academy Chargers hold a fierce rivalry with the St. Pius X High School Sartans that has lasted for decades. Albuquerque Academy and St. Pius had evenly matched teams and were the largest two independent schools in the Albuquerque metropolitan area for years, helping the rivalry to grow in the 1980s. Signs of the rivalry show up occasionally in acts of vandalism; Academy students have defaced the statue on the St. Pius campus numerous times, while St. Pius students allegedly burned a large X into the field at Albuquerque Academy.
Most recently, students at St. Pius X High School were held responsible for defacing a memorial site on the Albuquerque Academy campus and for spray-painting other areas around the campus, inciting outrage from both Albuquerque Academy and the St. Pius administrations. Though the offending students were dismissed, numerous members of the St. Pius community publicly protested what they viewed as an unfair punishment.
A notorious event in the rivalry's history occurred in 1980 when someone, allegedly St. Pius students, set fire to Albuquerque Academy's stadium the night before their annual football game. Another well-known event occurred in 1996, when a St. Pius football center played with two buckles on his helmet that were made razor sharp by his father. One Charger football player was hospitalized. Academy coaches generally regard this as the work of an individual rather than a plot by the St. Pius student body.
Notable alumni
...
- Notah Begay III
- Martin Chavez
- Jonathan Miller
- Albert Chainey Umphrey
- Randall H. Talbot * Samuel Owen
Notable former and current faculty
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External links
References
