Seventh-day Adventists Planning School
Non-members Of Church Welcome
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has taken the first steps toward restarting a school on Bishops Lodge Road and are praying everything will be in place in time for the upcoming school year.
Allen Steele, who serves as president of the already established school board, said the Adventist Academy of Santa Fe would open at the same location where the church operated a school more than a decade ago. But plans are to find a permanent location elsewhere.
“We’ve been working on it for about a year, looking at different sites,” Steele said. “We see this one as probably temporary, as we expect this one to grow and we would soon outgrow it.”
Steele said plans are for the school to conduct classes in grades 1-8, with an enrollment of 50 students the first year. Two certified teachers would be hired, one of whom would serve as head teacher.
The academy would be operated by the four Seventh-day
Adventist congregations in town, each providing representation on the school board.
Steele said the board hopes to get the school up and running by late August, but there is some question as to whether it can meet that time frame.
“It’s a matter of getting approval from city. There are a number of steps we have to go through,” he said.
The first step is complete. An Early Neighborhood Notification meeting was held June 25. The next step is to file an application with the city’s land use department for a special use permit. The matter then goes before the board of adjustment, which may specify conditions of approval.
Steele said the entire process could take eight or 10 weeks, meaning the school wouldn’t be able to open until the end of August.
At least initially, the school would operate at 702 Bishops Lodge Road, where Steele said there is already a small gym and buildings that could house classrooms.
“We can use buildings that are there, but we’re hoping to add a modular unit. We’re applying to the city for the modular unit,” he said.
Steele said there were no major complaints from neighbors about locating a school in the area. He said having a school there would enhance the neighborhood.
“It’s generally known that schools in a community do add value to properties in an area, and we think that’s an area that is under-served by public schools,” he said. “So we feel that we’re filling in a place that would benefit the community.”
Steele said the school’s curriculum is already in place.
“We use a national curriculum that’s used all across the county, which is not a New Mexico curriculum, per se, but it meets all New Mexico requirements,” he said. “It has a spiritual side, as well as the three Rs and all basics that you would expect in school.”
Steele said there are nearly 8,000 Seventh-day Adventist schools in 140 countries around the world. The 863 in North America — including two elementary schools and a high school in Albuquerque — work to educate more than 80,000 students.
According to a fact sheet, 85 percent of students receiving an Adventist education go on to attend college and of those 80 percent earn a college degree. On average, students perform at or above the 70th percentile on nationally normed tests administered in public and private schools nationwide.
“We’re really confident about the quality of education that we’ll be able to provide here,” Steele said.
Steele said students don’t have to be members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to attend the academy.
“It’s open enrollment. We would love to have kids from outside the church,” he said.
Tuition will be $4,500 per year, he said.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church grew out of the Millerite movement in the 1840s. Its followers believe in the Holy Trinity and that the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are the written word of God.
The name of the church is derived from the belief that Saturday is the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week. Saturday is, therefore, observed as the Sabbath and church members take that day to rest from school and work for fellowship and communion with God.
“Adventist” means followers are looking for a return of Jesus Christ to earth.