All Las Cruces Public School District students will have the opportunity to return to the classroom starting April 6, in accordance with state guidelines mandating that in-person learning resume.
Las Cruces School Board President Ray Jaramillo outlined the state’s reopening directive, prior to the board officially voting to certify the date of reentry.
“On March 8, 2021, the PED issued an expectation that all schools be in full reentry, no later than April 5,” Jaramillo said. “April 5 is a LCPS school holiday. Moreover, the PED considers full reentry to be satisfied with either four or five days a week of in-person learning.”
Las Cruces Public Schools Attorney Elena Gallegos says the board was left with little power to determine the timeline for reopening schools.
“We're back into a situation where there does not appear to be choice, the expectation of the Secretary of Education, is that we resume in-person learning,” Gallegos said. “There's not the kind of choices we've had in the past. With that expectation, what we see happening with the PED, from a legal standpoint, is aligning itself with the CDC, and with the federal law.”
All students, regardless of whether they choose to return to the classroom, will work remotely on Wednesdays. Middle and high school online learners will be offered 45 minutes to an hour of academic support during the rest of the school week, prior to the arrival of in-person learners.
Interim Superintendent Ralph Ramos says the new schedule will accommodate both online and in-person students.
“It was kind of like trying to piece all the, you know, this huge puzzle, to try to meet everyone's needs with the mandate of coming into the building with kids in person,” Ramos said. “We have some good systems already, just based on what we've learned, and how we've been conducting our learning in the classrooms with remote only. And I strongly believe that the asynchronous and synchronous instruction will also meet those needs.”
School Board Member Maria Flores voiced concern about meeting the needs of remote learners.
“I see that high school has an hour of instruction, again, versus a whole day of instruction for the ones that are in person,” Flores said. “I just don't understand how that can be equitable. I really don't.”
Fellow Board Member Terrie Dallman was the only member to not support the reentry, abstaining from the vote. She reminded the board that the pandemic is still ongoing.
“Teachers had heard from administration that the pandemic was over. It is not over, by any means,” Dallman said. “Plus, there are variants that are coming in as well. We don't know how those are going to react, especially to our children.”
She also expressed the need to protect district employees, saying staff needs to be able to take care of both their professional and personal responsibilities exasperated by the pandemic.
“I've never been a fan of ‘We're all in this together,’ I'm not a fan of that slogan, but a lot of people are,” Dallman said. “And if you want to look at that now, we're not in this together because we're not supporting our staff members with their families. When you have a single parent that is taking care of a family member that has health issues, and they can't be vaccinated, this is a real issue for them. We’re not taking that into consideration.”
1,824 of the over 3,330 district employees have reported receiving both doses of the COVID vaccine. 233 staff members have received one dose, while 324 employees opted out of vaccination. Interim Superintendent Ralph Ramos says the district is working on accommodations for those that will not be fully vaccinated by April 6.
“Every day I know we have 200 vaccinations available for our LCPS employees, and we're maximizing on that, you know, to really do our due diligence to our employees on that,” Ramos said. “Now, on that note, let's say that come April 6 there's still some employees that have not received the vaccination and are wanting to, and they're scheduled for let's say April the 8th to get it, we are working with those individuals.”
The district is still calculating the number of students expected to return in-person. Ramos says that the new schedule will require communication to ensure the health and safety of the LCPS community.
“I think the key thing here is communicating with each other, with what's happening,” Ramos said.
