LCPS to hold virtual town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss redistricting proposals

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- Some Las Cruces students may attend a different school next year, as the Las Cruces Public School District gets closer to redistricting.

ABC-7 first brought you this news back in August.

Superintendent Ignacio Ruiz says multiple redistricting options have been presented during town hall meetings, and says the number of students needs to be balanced district-wide.

19 total schools from the elementary to high school level could see district zoning changes starting for the 2025-26 school year, including all four of Las Cruces’ high schools.

8 of 9 of Las Cruces' middle schools, excluding Mesa Middle School, will are also part of the redistricting proposals, as well as Columbia, Monte Vista, Sonoma Ranch, Desert Hills, Highland, Mesilla, and Fairacres Elementary schools.

As it stands, Mayfield High School is underpopulated, with a current head count of 1,421 students, while Organ Mountain is overpopulated with 2,701 students.

LCPS says one of the goals of rezoning the district is to better evenly distribute the number of students across the four high schools, as seen in three proposals by Las Cruces Public Schools.

In one of the proposals, the number of students at each high school would be closer to around 1,500 to 2,000 students, which puts each school closer to its intended capacity.

The redistricting also allows around up to 700 students to populate the re-built Columbia Elementary, which is slated to open for the 2025 school year.

“Our goal is to make sure we’re right-sizing our schools, the East Mesa piece is growing tremendously, we have schools out there with 10 to 12 portables, we need to get kiddos back into classrooms, and make sure we’re utilizing our spaces efficiently," said Superintendent Ruiz.

Some parents on social media aren’t happy with the proposed changes, as have also shown displeasure with the way only select parents were chosen to be part of the redistricting committee.

However, Superintendent Ruiz says there’s still time to make your voices heard as parents.

“The opportunities are there, we’ve added a virtual town hall that’s happening tomorrow, we also have a Spanish speaking town hall, so those are two great opportunities for our community to give us input," said Ruiz.

The virtual town hall meeting is being held Wednesday, December 4th at 6:30 p.m.

You can find the link to the meeting here, as well as the link to the redistricting parent survey here.