Monterey Bay Academy

The campus from the air

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Adventism

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. Despite boasting about it on their website and signs on the beach that claim the beach as "Private" the school does not own the sand nor the waves out in front. These signs really ought to be taken down and removed from the natural environment. 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.[7]

The required curriculum includes classes in the following subject areas: Religion, English, Oral Communications, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Health, Computer Applications, Fine Arts, and Electives.

All students take religion classes each year that they are enrolled. These classes cover topics in biblical history and Christian and denominational doctrines. Instructors in other disciplines also begin each class period with prayer or a short devotional thought, many which encourage student input. Weekly, the entire student body gathers together in the auditorium for an hour-long chapel service. Outside the classrooms there is year-round spiritually oriented programming that relies on student involvement.

In 1938, the National Guard relocated the 250th Coast Artillery Regiment to the present MBA site.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10]

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.[10]

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 former military camp's runway was preserved as a strictly private use, dirt airstrip; however, in the beginning of 2013 the strip was restored, grass was planted on the runway, and was opened to the public using the name Monterey Bay Academy Airport.[10]

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

• Official website