There has been much to digest this past week, as public and charter schools received guidance from the New Mexico Public Education Department on how to safely welcome students back in the fall, how much we will have to juggle our greatly-reduced budget, and how a name reflects who we are and where we live.
Today, we know that our schools will have to operate according to a hybrid model of remote learning and classroom instruction with only 50 percent of the student body in school on a given day. Masks and temperature checks are recommended, and bus seats will be limited. Las Cruces Public Schools has been anticipating these recommendations and has laid the foundation for a plan that we will finalize in the coming weeks.
Within that plan are suggestions and priorities that have come directly from parents, teachers, students, community stakeholders and district officials. Your feedback over the last several weeks is tremendously helpful, and we understand your concerns. Recently, a couple of our students on the Re-Entry Task Force distributed a survey among their peers that returned more than 1,700 responses. Our children are very aware of the situation before them, and they have tangible concerns and suggestions for navigating their educational experience.
This week the Instruction Subcommittee developed a plan to establish two learning cohorts divided evenly for each classroom of 13 to 15 students, with consideration for families that need siblings to attend school on the same day to alleviate childcare issues. The Task Force and principals expressed a preference for those cohorts to meet on a Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday model, with Wednesdays dedicated to remote learning in order to deep clean our schools. Our staff is developing training modules to help teachers and families better understand online learning, our Canvas platform and we are working to assess each student individually to provide an environment that is efficient and effective. We are also gleaning over additional plans for medically fragile students and special education, which were not immediately outlined in the guidance from the PED.
At Thursday’s meeting of the LCPS Board of Education, many of you shared your feelings over the board’s discussion to consider renaming Oñate High School. The board, which holds the authority to change the name, heard those concerns and will be taking up the issue again very soon. During Thursday’s presentation, it was recommended that a renaming effort can only move forward if there is considerable input from the community and, following the wishes of Oñate's principal, Jim Schapekahm, feedback from his staff and students who are “like a family.” Jim is a stellar leader among the district and was recently named New Mexico’s Principal of the Year. We are so proud of him and his accomplishments and will share more about his recognition next week.
Thank you for your input and your patience as we work to reconnect our students and finalize our re-entry plans. An information survey for families will be distributed this week to determine transportation needs, technology needs and other relevant information so we can plan accordingly. In the coming days, we will have several important announcements that can be found on our website created just for re-entry information. You can find it at www.returnplan.lcps.net where additional information will be outlined in easy to follow tabs as they relate to Athletics, Communication, Health and Safety, Instruction and Operations. We welcome any additional feedback you may have to returnplan@lcps.net.
Dr. Karen Trujillo is the superintendent of Las Cruces Public Schools.
More from LCPS:
- LCPS: Arts education is essential
- LCPS awards teacher and educational support personnel of the year
- LCPS School Board: Seniors, thank you for your inspiration
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The balancing act of re-entry, and what’s in a name - Las Cruces Sun-News
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