Albuquerque Academy

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Albuquerque Academy
'Scientia ad faciendum (Knowing through doing)
School type	Private, Grades 6-12
Established	1955
Principal	Head-of-School Andrew T. Watson
Faculty	139
Students	1070
Colors	Red and Black
Location	6400 Wyoming Blvd. NE Albuquerque, NM 87109 United States
Information	(505)828-3200
Website	http://www.aa.edu

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^[1] 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 (or "lower school"), the eight-nine division, and the ten-twelve division (both in the "upper school").

[edit] History

Albuquerque Academy was founded in 1955 as The Academy 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. In 1965, the school moved to its current site in northeast Albuquerque.^[2]

Between 1957 and 1964, the Academy received a large tract of undeveloped land north of Albuquerque, part of the Elena Gallegos Land Grant, from the Albert G. Simms family. The western portion (from Wyoming Boulevard to the Rio Grande) was sold to finance the creation of the current campus and the first endowment fund, and the present campus was created in the middle of the tract. The land east of the campus, reaching to the crest of the Sandia Mountains, was sold later in a series of deals. First the section from the campus to Juan Tabo Boulevard 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.^{[citation needed]} The deal fell through and the Academy became the garage owner while still retaining the area.^{[citation needed]}

In July 1982, the city purchased most of the land in a complex deal with the Academy and the US Forest Service. The City retained part of the land, which is now the 640 acre Elena Gallegos Picnic Area/Albert G. Simms Park, located at the feet of the Sandias at the mouths of Bear and Pino Canyons. The 7,000 acre-plus remainder of the purchase, most of it forest land in the canyons proper, was sold to the Forest Service, and is now part of the Cibola National Forest and the Sandia Mountain Wilderness.^[3] The Academy retained two parts of the tract, the larger adjoining Tramway Boulevard. The school set up the High Desert Investment Corporation (HDIC) to develop this portion as the master-planned community known as High Desert. (The smaller portion, within Bear Canyon itself, is still used by the Academy for experiential education purposes.) HDIC then purchased a large tract of land in the northern section of Rio Rancho, which it is currently developing as Mariposa.^[4] The proceeds from the land sales and from HDIC have provided the Academy with a substantial endowment, which is used partly to defray tuition expenses and to subsidize a significant need-based financial aid program.

The school remained an all-boys school, with grades five through twelve, until 1973, at which time girls were allowed into grades nine through twelve. 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.^{[citation needed]} The 5th grade was dropped in 1979, and the school became fully coeducational in 1984.

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.

Aerial picture of Albuquerque Academy's students, faculty, and staff on Richard Harper Memorial Field during Heritage Day.

[edit] Heads of school

• William B. S. Wilburn, 1955-1960
• Rev. Paul G. Saunders, 1960-1964
• Ashby Harper, 1964-1985
• Robert L. Bovinette, 1985-1996
• Timothy R. McIntire, 1996-1999
• Donald W. Smith (interim head), 1999-2000
• Andrew T. Watson, 2000-present

[edit] Facilities

The school sits on an approximately 312 acre (1.5 km²) gated campus in the northeastern part of the city. It is divided into two campuses, the West Campus and the East Campus. 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] Simms Library

The Dr. Albert G. Simms II and Barbara Young Simms Library (almost always shortened to "Simms Library") is the Academy's most iconic building, housing the school's collection of over 100,000 books, periodicals, videos, and recordings. It comprises 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.

[edit] Science Building

The Science Building sits across a brick plaza from the Library. It houses all of the Academy's science classrooms, labs, and faculty, as well as some teachers from other departments. The building comprises two classroom wings and two laboratory wings grouped around a square central courtyard, which includes a small pond that contains some small fish and aquatic pond snails. The main foyer houses a large Foucault pendulum. (Another much smaller pendulum is located in Brown Hall on the East Campus). The Science Building was also designed by Howe and opened at the same time as the Library.

[edit] 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. Also on the East Campus is the Simms Center for the Performing Arts, designed by George Pearl, completed in 1975, and remodeled in 2000; and the Music Building, designed by Bill Sabatini of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and completed in 1996.

[edit] Athletic facilities

The Academy's largest sports facilities are Harper Memorial Stadium (used for football and soccer games and track and field meets), the East Campus Gym (basketball and volleyball), and the Natatorium (swimming and diving). There are also several soccer, baseball, and softball fields, a 16-court tennis complex, a cross country course, a weight room, and basketball courts.

[edit] Experiential eduation

The Academy curriculum includes a significant experiential education component, part of which involves outdoor activities such as backpacking, rock climbing, and canoeing. The school's 270 acre (1.1 km²) tract in Bear Canyon is used for this purpose; trips also take place in areas throughout the state. The seventh grade student class goes to Bear Canyon for a week each year, and the sixth grade class takes day hikes in it.

[edit] Student body

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-based financial aid offered to students, totaling nearly one-third of the student body and 2.2 million dollars.^[5] 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.

Albuquerque Academy prides itself on its 8:1 student/teacher ratio.^[6]

[edit] 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 (a student newsmagazine that has received numerous awards from the Albuquerque Tribune and the New Mexico Press Women), the nationally ranked speech and debate team, Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, and theater. Students are able to submit proposals to the 10-12 Student Senate to create a new club or activity, which nearly always approves activities.

In the spring of 2006, the orchestra, called the Chamber Players, was invited to attend the National Orchestra Festival in Kansas City, Missouri, where they received a superior rating.

In June of 2006, the Academy's Middle School Science Bowl team placed second at the National Middle School Science Bowl competition in Denver, CO.

In addition to these optional extracurricular activities, all students at the Academy spend the final month of their senior year doing a "senior project," which is the culmination of the experiential education part of the curriculum. A senior project is usually an off-campus internship with a community sponsor; it can also be on-campus work with a faculty mentor, participation in a seminar, or it can be a completely self-directed project.^[7]

The Academy also offers a summer school program, which has a variety of classes including language, science, and art. The summer program usually runs from early June to mid-July, lasting 6 weeks (with a vacation for Independence Day). In addition to the academic offerings, the summer program includes a traditional summer camp and athletic and aquatic camps.

[edit] Rivalry

The Albuquerque Academy Chargers hold a fierce rivalry with the St. Pius X High School (Albuquerque) 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, most notably in 2000, a member of the varsity soccer squad broke off all of the fingers except for the middle finger, causing public outrage from the faculty of both schools. Also, St. Pius students allegedly burned a large X into the Richard Harper Memorial Field at Albuquerque Academy. (Whether or not St. Pius students actually burned the X is debatable. Some have attributed the act to students at a local public high school.)

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.^[8]

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. The New Mexico Activities Association determined that this was the work of an individual, with no evidence to show that other students were involved.^[9][10][11]

[edit] Notable alumni

• Norman Bay, former United States Attorney
• Notah Begay III, professional golfer
• Jonathan Miller, author, "Rattlesnake Lawyer"
• Albert Chainey Umphrey (Graduated in 1988), member of the 1996 U.S. Men's Gymnastics Olympic Team
• Brian Conrey, professor of Mathematics at Oklahoma State University and Founding Executive Director of the American Institute of Mathematics

[edit] Notable former and current faculty

• Robert Creeley

[edit] External links

• Albuquerque Academy website
• Quick facts on the school

[edit] References