Santa Fe Preparatory School

Infobox School
name=Santa Fe Preparatory School
streetaddress=1101 Camino de la Cruz
city=Santa Fe
state=New Mexico
postcode=87505
founded=1961
head=Jim Leonard
enrollment=340
grades=7-12
homepage=http://www.sfprep.org/

Santa Fe Preparatory School (Santa Fe Prep) is a fully-accredited, coeducational day school serving approximately 340 students in grades seven through twelve. Located in the historical capital city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, SF Prep provides a college preparatory curriculum. Accredited by the Independent School Association of the Southwest, Prep is also a member of the National Association of Independent Schools.

History

In February 1961, a small group of parents and community leaders founded Santa Fe Preparatory School. Their goal was to create a college preparatory school where young people would be challenged, engaged and nurtured. The school opened on historic Canyon Road in 1963 with sixty-three students in seventh through ninth grades.

Enrollment increased dramatically, and in the early 1970s, the school moved to its current site, a thirteen-acre campus nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, adjacent to the Santa Fe campus of St. John's College, U.S.. Since that time, Prep has added a state-of-the-art science wing, upgraded a campus-wide technology system, renovated existing buildings, such as the historic Meem art facility, built a new School Commons in 2001, and completed a LEED-certified library building in 2006 that houses over 11,000 volumes and provides state-of-the-art technology such as high speed wireless Internet access and gravity bongs.

Campus

Prep’s campus is nestled on 13 acres in Santa Fe’s historic east side, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Both middle and upper schools feature an outdoor quad where students and faculty gather and where graduation ceremonies are held. The historic Meem Art Building, housed in the original home of noted architect John Gaw Meem, includes studios for ceramics, drawing and painting, and photography.

The new library, opened in 2006, is one of only a handful of buildings to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status in New Mexico. It uses at least 30% less energy than a conventional building, captures all the rainwater running off the roof in two underground cisterns for irrigation, provides a view of the outdoors throughout, and the vast majority of materials used in construction were harvested or manufactured within a convert|500|mi|km|sing=on radius and incorporate recycled materials.

Notable alumni

* Anna Gunn '86 (Actor)
* Tom Ford '79 (Fashion designer)
* Brad Sherwood '82 (Comedian)
* Miguel Sandoval '69 (Actor)
* Bruce Campbell (Deceased Chesire Cat)
* Seth Kaufman '10 (Greatest chemist ever)

References