Las Cruces students return to the classroom

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- Las Cruces Public schools welcomed all of its 24,000 students back to the classroom Thursday.

Kinder, sixth and ninth grade students made the return on Wednesday to make their transition easier.

The biggest change within the district parents may have already noticed is the districts implementation of a balanced calendar. Students had a short six week summer and will have longer breaks within the year as long as more opportunities for enriched learning which can be anything from more one-on-one time with teachers to non-traditional instruction.

"That's what we're trying to accommodate all 24,000 students, everyone is super important to us, along with staff and employees, we want to support them as well," said LCPS Superintendent Ralph Ramos. "This pandemic has really helped us take that to another level and we just want to assure everyone that we're here together in this.”

One challenge at the start of the pandemic was finding lost students who stopped attending class. Ramos said LCPS was able to locate almost all of the more than 400 missing students expect for more than a dozen.

Ramos said this year the district is capitalizing on its Career and Technical Education program allowing student to earn school credit and earn money while working depending on where they're placed.

"That's gonna be a great workforce initiative to really help support those students that had a hard time returning back to schools and taking on that role of also earning money while learning doing their classes.”

Safety is also a big concern this year. Ramos said new this year all middle and high schools will have a school resource officer assigned to a campus.

"We take safety definitely as number one priority for our students."

For more on LCPS, click here.