Native American Preparatory School

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The Native American Preparatory School (NAPS) was started in 1988 as a summer academic program by Richard Ettinger, grandson of the founder of the Prentice Hall publishing dynasty and the Education Foundation of America (EFA). At its inception, NAPS operated in schools in New Mexico, Arizona, and the University of California, Irvine. EFA poured $20 million into acquiring land some ten miles east of Pecos, New Mexico, next to the village of South San Ysidro. The Pecos River ran through the southern part of the campus. The ranch of movie star Val Kilmer bordered NAPS to the west and north. And just a few miles more to the northwest lay the foothills of the Sangre de Christo (Blood of Christ) range of the Southern Rockies.

In 1995, after Richard's untimely death, the leadership of NAPS passed to his daughter from his first marriage, Barbara Ettinger. In 1996, Barbara became Chair of NAPS' Board of Trustees. That year, NAPS began its permanent existence as a four-year college-prep school still guided by Richard's vision of increasing the number of Native American students having post-secondary educational opportunities. NAPS, the only existing intertribal, privately-funded preparatory school for Native Americans, drew its students from tribes across the United States and Canada. These students received full to partial scholarships according to need.

In 2000, after graduating its first two classes, NAPS could boast that 100% of its students had been placed in post-secondary educational opportunities ranging from community college to admissions to Stanford and Harvard. Under the leadership of then Academic Dean Diana Gruendler, 83% of NAPS' students were admitted to their first choice college or university.

But the school would be closed forever in 2002 due deteriorating finances. The events leading up to NAPS' demise were the focus of an investigation by the New Mexico Attorney General.

In 1999, Barbara was forced off the Board by a group of its members including her stepmother, Richard's third wife, Sharon Ettinger. Barbara and her soon-to-be husband, Head of School Sven Huseby, left NAPS for good. Upon leaving, Barbara told the Board, "If I can't run the school, no one will run the school."

Though gone from the campus, Barbara had several allies on the Board. These friends included soon-to-be Chair Cheryl Hamer Mackell, a Santa Fe attorney, and Knott's Berry Farm heiress Frances Knott. In the fall of 2001, new Head of the School Gruendler, Dean of Students Leslie Lopez, and Dean of Admissions Christopher Johnson, were fired by Mackell, Knott, and the Board. NAPS would later settle with these administrators after a suit for wrongful termination and a related civil rights claim. All administrators fired were Native American. None of the Board members were Native American.

When Sharon offered to put up the money needed to keep NAPS going so long as the then existing Board dissolved itself, that plan was rejected by the Board.

The NAPS Restoration Committee was begun in Spring of 2002 in an effort to save the school. The Attorney General's investigation into NAPS' closure found evidence of fraud and financial mismanagement by the Board. Still, the cost of a full-blown criminal investigation and prosecution against well-heeled Board members with powerful connections was deemed an unwise use of limited government resources. With the student body having already found other schools to attend, and the teachers already accepting other positions for the following school year, there was nothing left to save for 2002-2003. The only punishment meted out to the Board which oversaw the destruction of NAPS was a negotiated settlement of one-million dollars to assist former students with future academic expenses.

[edit] References

• "Native American Preparatory School," by Jackie Bissley. September 1999. Cowboys & Indians [1]
• "Native American Preparatory School Graduates its Last Class," by Christina Boyle. The Santa Fe New Mexican, reprinted in Canku Ota, June 1, 2002. [2]
• "A Summer Journey: The 1999 College Horizons Program," by Barbara Sorensen, Winds of Change, the magazine of The American Indian Science and Engineering Society [3]