Monterey Bay Academy

Monterey Bay Academy
Address
783 San Andreas Road La Selva Beach , California , 95076-1911 U.S.
Coordinates	36.910113°N 121.837830°W / 36.910113; -121.837830
Information
Type	Private School, Boarding School, Day School, High School
Motto	Where Land and Sea Unite to Inspire
Established	1949
Founder	Elder Leal V. Grunke
School district	Central California Conference, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists
Principal	Tim Kubrock Vice-principal = Donna Baerg
Chaplain	Pastor Jeff Deming
Faculty	14
Grades	9-12
Gender	Coeducational
Number of students	165
Campus	Coastal & Rural, 379 acres (1.53 km2)
Color(s)	Blue   White
Athletics	Mighty Cypress (varsity and junior varsity - flagball, volleyball, basketball, softball)
Nickname	MBA
Accreditation	Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Adventist Accreditation Association
Newspaper	N/A
Yearbook	Cypress Bough
Affiliation	Seventh-day Adventist Church
Staff	19
Zip Code	95076-1911
Website	http://www.montereybayacademy.org/

Monterey Bay Academy (MBA) is a private school in Santa Cruz County, California.

Description

The campus from the air

Monterey Bay Academy is located on 379 acres (153 ha) about 15 miles (24 km) south of Santa Cruz, California, on the edge of the community of La Selva Beach between Manresa State Beach to the north, and Sunset State Beach to the south. The campus is directly on a beach on central California's Monterey Bay, which is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The address is 783 San Andreas Road, west of Watsonville, California and California State Route 1.

Type of School

MBA is a co-educational, Christian high school for boarding and day students. The academic program is college preparatory, with seniors expected to be accepted into 4-year colleges. It is owned and operated by the Central California Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, part of a network of more than 5,000 educational facilities.

Monterey Bay Academy is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the Adventist Accreditation Association.

Electives and activities

MBA offers elective classes from Marine Biology to Woodworking to Fine Art and advanced placement classes in United States History and English Literature. Offerings are based on the entrance requirements of the University of California.

Popular student activities are music,sports programs and extra-curricular trips and tours. Some students enjoy surfing or boogie boarding on the beach, other sports include soccer, basketball, or skateboarding. Many students are involved with student government, community service, or outreach projects.

Very few students in the dormitory have roommates and each dorm has at least two full time adult supervisors.

History of MBA

In 1938, the National Guard relocated the 250th Coast Artillery Regiment to the present MBA site. Named in memory of military chaplain Joseph P. McQuaide, Camp McQuaide was the coastal artillery training center for World War II and became the official stockade for army deserters. After ten years Camp McQuaide was decommissioned and considered surplus.

In 1948, the government tried unsuccessfully to sell the property to Santa Cruz County for $1 as site of a junior college, and to the California Department of Parks and Recreation for a state park. Leal Grunke, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor from Chowchilla, California, was the procurement officer for the Central California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. When he saw the location for the first time, he proposed using it for a boarding school. He met opposition from church officials, and then from the government. Grunke made several trips from Chowchilla to the War Assets Administration in San Francisco to meet with the general who was considering selling the property to private land developers. With the help of John P. Gifford of the United States Department of Education, Grunke convinced the War Assets Administration to give the land to the Seventh-day Adventist Church on August 13, 1948. No money was paid, not even the $1 asked of Santa Cruz County earlier that year.

A condition was that the Church develop the school laid out in its proposal. Despite the pristine location, the remains of the camp included acres of cement and 600 old buildings. Monterey Bay Academy did not start out as an aesthetically pleasing campus. Despite being called "Grunke’s Folly", the school was established in 1949. The school's motto "Where land and sea unite to inspire", was created by Grunke's wife Ruth, while the school's name was chosen by Grunke.

Since 1949, Monterey Bay Academy served more than 8,000 students with 95% going to college. As a part of the world's largest Protestant school system MBA has grown and modernized. The grounds now include lawns, flower beds and Monterey Pine and coastal Monterey Cypress trees that frame views of the Pacific Ocean. The remains of the camp airstrip are preserved, and called Monterey Bay Academy Airport.

Principals

• Standish Hoskins, acting principal (1949 – December 13, 1949, 6 months)
• David Bieber (December 14, 1949–1957, 7 years 6 months)
• Rowland Howlett (1957–1962, 5 years)
• Carl Jorgensen (1962–1969, 7 years)
• Keith Wheeler, acting principal (1969–1970, 1 year)
• Harvey Voth (1970–1988, 18 years)
• Ernie Unruh (1988–1989, 1 year)
• Keith Wheeler, acting principal (1989–1990, 1 year)
• Ted Winn (1990–1996, 6 years)
• Bill Keresoma (1996–2005, 9 years)
• Tim Kubrock (2005–Present, 8 years)

See also

• List of Seventh-day Adventist secondary and elementary schools
• Santa Cruz County high schools

External links

• Monterey Bay Academy (official site)
• Monterey Bay Academy Alumni (official site)
• Monterey Bay Academy Alumni Golf Classic (official site)
• Monterey Bay Academy Seventh-day Adventist Church (official site)
• Monterey Bay Academy WASC Accreditation