Las Cruces Public Schools outlined a plan to increase face-to-face learning opportunities during Tuesday’s school board meeting. Small groups of students will be returning to in-person learning starting February 22nd.
Earlier this month, school board members voted to allow select groups of students to return to the classroom in a modified hybrid plan. School Board Member Teresa Tenorio, who spoke out against a full hybrid reopening, says she’s hopeful the new plan will balance both health and safety while still prioritizing continued education efforts.
“I think I was willing to go in this direction, to experiment with the reopening, as long as it wasn't too big, where we would have bigger mistakes,” Tenorio said. “And what I see now with this plan is even when we start small, with such a big district, it still has a significant impact.”
Not every student will have the opportunity to return to the classroom. Elementary and middle schools will focus on the students who have struggled the most with the move to online learning. For now, the district will concentrate on those with poor internet connection, those in need of additional emotional support, and students who have not engaged with the curriculum—shown by a lack of assignment submission or general understanding of material.
Over 700 middle school and 1,700 elementary school students will be part of the modified hybrid plan. LCPS Superintendent Karen Trujillo says that while students will be in the classroom two days a week for a few hours each day the district is not currently implementing the full hybrid model.
“We're not in a hybrid model. We're not compelling anybody to go into the building. We’re not doing the changing of classes,” Trujillo said. “It's kind of like transitioning into hybrid, then to hybrid, then to full. So, we're kind of like at that very beginning stage.”
High schoolers physically returning will be in the classroom two full days a week. While more than 75% will continue to be educated entirely online, Trujillo says in-person students will be assigned to a small cohort instead of bouncing from class to class.
“The cohort of the student will stay the same, but it might be a team of teachers that are working with them,” Trujillo said. “It might just be a group that needs help with math and science. So, one day it might be a math teacher that's in there helping them, and one day it might be a science.”
Teachers will have the opportunity to wait until after receiving the second dose of the COVID vaccine before returning to the classroom. According to Trujillo, 82% of the staff requesting the vaccine has already been given access.
“Overall, we had 1,911 people request vaccinations, and we were able to arrange that for close to 1,600,” Trujillo said. “We have 3,412 employees. 1,911 requested vaccination, and that is 56%.”
Since November, five staff members have been lost to the Coronavirus. The most recent, Mesa Middle School Media Teacher Elizabeth Placencio, occurred February 15th. Prior to a moment of silent remembrance during the meeting, Trujillo emphasized how seriously the district is taking the pandemic.
“I mean it really does bring it home,” Trujillo said. “So when people talk about, you know, that we don't care about our teachers or our students, that is the furthest thing from the truth. And I just want our community to know that we take this very, very, very seriously. And we want to honor the needs of our students and the needs of our staff, but really our community.”
School Board President Ray Jaramillo called on the community to partner with the district to ensure the health and safety of staff and students.
“I think that it’s complicated,” Jaramillo says. “And I would use the complexity of this to really ask the community for help. We have to stay in the yellow. We have to move toward the green for this to work. Because if we go the other way, we can't increase, we can't get to that full hybrid model that can support families.”
An expansion of current in-person learning opportunities is expected to be discussed at the next school board meeting in March.
