APS OKs military charter school
The students will be cadets; their principal the commodore. And everyone will be in snappy uniforms.
Bataan Military Academy, the first military charter high school in New Mexico and the seventh in the nation, plans to open in Albuquerque in August.
The Albuquerque Board of Education unanimously approved the academy Wednesday, after making sure it would abide by district policy against discrimination.
All students, regardless of sex, sexual orientation and immigration status, will be welcome. No one will be required to join a branch of the armed services.
Board member Leonard DeLayo asked specifically about the academy's policy on gays. Board member Miguel Acosta asked about immigrants and non-citizens.
"This school is open to any student in this district. Our policy is to follow APS policy," said the academy's founder, Shelby Dawson Tallchief, a former Albuquerque Public Schools administrator and educator.
The Navy Junior ROTC and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps programs will be incorporated into the curriculum, he said.
Physical training is required.
Tallchief has been working with a committee for 18 months to get the academy operational. It will be located in the Armed Forces Reserve Center at 400 Wyoming Blvd. N.E. The reserves are building a new center at another location and will vacate the Wyoming center, Tallchief said.
A freshman class of 125 cadets and a sophomore class of 100 will be selected by lottery, which is required of all New Mexico charter schools. The maximum enrollment is projected at 400 cadets.
"We want to be the shining star," Tallchief said to the board, "to bring recognition to the academy and to the district."
The academy is dedicated to the U.S. forces who surrendered to the Japanese in the Philippine Islands beginning in March of 1942. Many of the men were from the 200th Coast Artillery and were from New Mexico.
Tallchief said the academy will prepare students for the military academies and service in the Navy, Air Force, Marines or Army, although no one is required to enlist after graduation.
Graduates also will be prepared for college or to enter the work world, he said.
The academy's goal is to prepare leaders in all walks of life who practice respect, honor, courage, commitment, personal integrity and patriotism, he said.
APS administrators recommended approval, saying the academy would fill a unique niche.
"It will follow a military model proven successful throughout the country," said Teresa Brito-Asenap, who reviewed the academy's application for a charter.
Year-round opportunities include sailing, survival training, marksmanship, military police, honor guard, music, pilot's license, air ground crew, scuba certification, culinary arts, seamanship on board Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine ships and exchange programs with cadets from England, Germany and Japan.
SHELBY DAWSON (TALLCHIEF)
CLASS OF 1964
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A Living Memorial to the Brave WWII Heroes of Bataan Bataan Military Academy™ 8001 MOUNTAIN ROAD PLACE NE ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87110 (505) 292-5588 Home of the Fighting Sea Lions U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps
MEET THE COMMODORE CDRE Shelby Dawson Tallchief is the Founder and Commodore of the Bataan Military Academy. He serves as the Commanding Officer of the local United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps Bataan Battalion RMR-15-2, holding the official rank of Lieutenant in the USNSCC. His father was an Army Air Corps B-24 pilot in the Philippines flying forty-four bombing missions over Japan during World War II. It is estimated that only some twenty percent of the Pacific B-24 pilots survived the War. Born in Oklahoma in 1946, he attended public schools and holds degrees or licensure from several universities including Central Oklahoma University, Texas Christian University, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont School of Theology and the University of New Mexico. Professionally, prior to becoming the Commodore of the Academy, he served as an assistant pastor, a prison correctional counselor, school teacher, school counselor, school administrator, and hearing officer administrative law judge. His military-related experience includes service as an USNSCC Training Officer, the Executive Officer for several training commands, USNSCC Regional Training Officer, the Commanding Officer for the USNSCC Fitzgerald Squadron, and presently the Commanding Officer for the Bataan Battalion. Having studied charter law in the early 1990s, he began his dream of creating the Academy by visiting the Delaware Military Institute, the nation’s first military charter high school located in Wilmington, Delaware. The creation and development of the Academy was a project that required hundreds of hours of writing, engagement with the state authorizer and support of the greater Albuquerque community. For several years, while holding a fulltime position, the Commodore worked on the Academy project each day at 3:30 AM and after his regular job, continuing to work on the Academy until late each evening. On weekends he worked 12-16 hours a day on the Bataan project. The Academy was officially sanctioned in November 2006. Following the official accreditation by the State of New Mexico Public Education Department, as the school’s administrator, he began ‘physically’ creating the high school by writing and monitoring a federal grant and the state budget, hiring an assistant principal and business manager, overseeing an extensive advertising project, interviewing prospective students and their families, interviewing and hiring teachers and staff members, locating and remodeling a building, ordering furniture, books and supplies, monitoring the purchase of science laboratory equipment, computers and other technology, stocking a military supply with uniforms, and developing sports and military style activities. During the years 2004-06, the Commodore negotiated a lease for a portion of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center, that it is hoped, will eventually serve as a permanent location for the Academy. These plans continue with the New Mexico Army National Guard. He worked with counsel developing the Bataan Military Academy Foundation, Inc., an organization designed to help financially support the on-going future work of the Academy. The Commodore reminds us that unlike most military academies with costly tuitions, and because the Academy was created as a public school, Bataan Academy is tuition free. This characteristic is a reflection of the Commodore’s determination to reach out to all high school age, hard working young men and women in our greater Albuquerque community. Dedicated to providing a world-class education for Cadets, the Commodore continues his dream repeating that the Bataan Academy is truly “the right thing, at the right time and for the right reasons.” For him and all of us at Bataan, it is a dream ‘come true.’ |
