Albuquerque Public Schools
Celebrating Our Military Children and Their Resilient Families
In her weekly message, Superintendent Blakey celebrates the resilience of our military families and calls on the entire APS community to offer them a warm welcome.
We’re fortunate to have Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, and while we generally do a good job of honoring our service members and recognizing the sacrifices they make for our country, it’s easy to lose sight of what that means for their families. That’s where the Month of the Military Child comes in.
The Month of the Military Child in April aims to raise awareness of the unique experience of military kids. I witnessed it first-hand as a student at Sandia Base Elementary School. Many of my friends at Sandia Base were well-traveled, having lived in different parts of the country and the world. But along with the excitement of a new start comes the sadness of saying goodbye to friends, the angst of starting fresh in a new city and school, and the need to make new friends.
I didn’t live on base, but many of my friends did.
Every year, I would have new friends coming and going. By fifth grade, there were only a few of us who had been at Sandia Base for several years.
As school staff, we should never forget what it’s like for students to come in and have to make new friends every few years. Let’s welcome them and encourage our students to do the same.
My experience at Sandia Base helped shape who I am today. I have friends all over the world because of those connections I made in elementary school, something I treasure to this day.
I loved my time at Sandia Base, and I’m incredibly proud of the investments Albuquerque Public Schools has made so that it can continue to be a vibrant campus for our students, staff and families. Roughly 85% of of students who attend the school have family members who work at Kirtland.
We recently completed a full rebuild of Sandia Base, spending more than $53 million on the two-story, 88,645-square-foot facility. The school has classrooms for kindergarten through fifth-grade students, dedicated music and art rooms, a library, cafeteria, gymnasium and new administrative suite.
As amazing as this new school is, the thing that really impressed me during the grand opening in October was the incredible family engagement I saw. The cafeteria was filled with parents, many of them dressed in their uniforms, and afterward, students excitedly showed off their classrooms, the gym and the other cool spaces in the school.
It was clear that this school is a community hub, a place where families feel welcome, and that was awesome to see!
As proud as I am of what we’ve done with Sandia Base Elementary, it’s important to remember that students from military families attend schools throughout the district. Let’s welcome these students and their families and go the extra mile to help them in whatever way we can.
Toward that end, we have created a resource page on our website to make it easier for military families to navigate our school district, both when they’re moving here and when they’re moving away. It’s on the APS.edu homepage, and I encourage you to let your military families know about it.
I began by highlighting how fortunate we are to have Kirtland right here in our city. It’s a huge part of our economy, but the real heart of it is the military families who bring so much life and energy to our community. Have a great weekend!