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LCPS welcomes thousands of students on first day of class

Thousands of students at Las Cruces Public Schools are back in class Monday.

More than 24,000 students make up the school district, which has a total of 40 campuses that bring in students from the city of Las Cruces, White Sands Missile range, the town of Dona Ana and a third of Dona Ana County.

The district, with about 3,200 employees is also the third-largest employer in Las Cruces.

“It’s going to be an exciting year in Las Cruces. We’re going to be making sure we’re serving the needs of kids academically, for their safety, supporting our staff and and opening our doors to parents,” said Jo Galvan, spokeswoman for LCPS.

Galvan talked to ABC-7 about some of the district’s goals for the upcoming school year, including the well-being of students.

“We want to really cut down on the amount of bullying in our schools and we want to help with suicide prevention,” Galvan said.

Galvan said two teens committed suicide during last school year.

“That’s not acceptable. We, as a community, need to think about how to help these kids find resources,” Galvan said.

A task force was recently created to help identify students with suicidal thoughts, bullying and cyberbullying.

Las Cruces Public Schools is also focusing on helping its monolingual students who are learning English for the first time in the classroom. Many of the students speak only Spanish and Galvan said they are not performing as they should be because they are not fully bilingual.

“We want to make sure teachers deliver the instructions for their needs and they have the materials needed to help monolingual speakers,” Galvan said.

The district is also introducing international welcome centers at Centennial, Las Cruces Mayfield and Onate high schools this year.

Galvan said this will ensure students are placed in the right classes, get them to graduate on time and prepare them for college or the workforce after high school.

“We don’t want their language or anything else to be a barrier to them,” Galvan said.

LCPS is welcoming an additional 200 employees, many of them first-time teachers. The district created a mentorship program so educators can help one another out.

“It’s always hard as a first-year teacher to understand all the ins and outs,” Galvan said.

More than half of the district’s principals who are new this year have three years or less of experience, according to Galvan. They too will get support with leadership academies and other resources.

“We want people to know that in Las Cruces, we are opening our doors more,” Galvan said.

She encouraged parents to get more involved in their child’s classroom this year.

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