LAS CRUCES — A proposed 6-12 school in Las Cruces has parents, teachers and students up in arms.
The school would combine Mesilla Valley Leadership Academy, a top-performing alternative middle school, with Rio Grande Preparatory Institute, a struggling high school with proficiency scores historically falling in the single digits, in what the Las Cruces school board has described as a financial decision.
The draft proposal for the school was not publicly introduced until August. Still, Superintendent Ignacio Ruiz decided to move the middle school to the high school’s campus in April.
There was no school board vote, meaning the decision likely violated state requirements, according to New Mexico Public Education Department spokesperson Janelle Taylor García.
Regardless of requests from board members, students and parents to slow the process, district leaders are trying to fast-track board approval so the combined school can open in fall 2027. The rush is due to a state deadline: Rio Grade Preparatory Institute risks closure or being taken over by the Public Education Department if the district does not present the state with a restructuring plan by January.
That’s because Rio Grande has been in the bottom designation of New Mexico public schools for three years — its test scores are abysmal, enrollment is declining and grant money has been withheld until the school shows improvement.
“The district has somehow led the community to believe that they don’t have a voice in this. They have sent out press releases and surveys and never once asked the community, do you support this new 6-12 school?” Clara Cobos, a parent at the middle school, said in an interview. “They’ve actually made it seem like it’s inevitable, even though they haven’t gotten the approval from the board.”
Beckett Hakes, one of 100 students at Mesilla Valley, chose to attend the middle school for its focused learning environment, “house” system and kind teachers, he said in an interview. The eighth grader is already frustrated with the limitations of the new campus — which consists of one hallway for the middle school.
“We were doing great, and because we were great, and they weren’t great, we have to be mid,” the 13-year-old said. “They are totally sacrificing us, and RGPI benefits.”
State violation?
New Mexico’s education secretary is typically required to sign off on a change like the movement of a school’s campus, Taylor García wrote in an email.
But first, the department also requires a district to submit an application with a copy of board approval, public notice and participation, relevant local policies and community engagement. Las Cruces school leaders seemingly failed to take these steps.
The April decision to combine schools by the school year’s start was made solely by the superintendent, wrote Kelly Jameson, a spokesperson for the district, in an email to The New Mexican.
“The board’s governance is policy, not managing day-to-day operations; administration and supervision of the district comes from the superintendent,” she wrote.
Jameson did not respond to follow-up questions asking for a response to the state’s assertion that the plan went against state policy.
The fact that the board should have had a voice in the move was “news” to its president, Pamela Cort: “That was already a done deal. … We had no idea that paperwork was required,” she said in an interview on behalf of the board, citing their “one voice policy.”
For eighth grader and student council President Noelle Smith, moving campuses “was a hard change” — one that came with a longer commute and less space. Ruiz said at the Sept. 29 board meeting some students are on the bus for an hour to get to school.
“At first I was excited for the new location, but then after going there, I kind of had the wish that we just stayed at the same place instead of moving,” Smith, 14, said in an interview. “Some parents, even this year, didn’t want their kids to go to MVLA because there’s high schoolers [on campus].”
‘All about finances’
The board vote to approve the combined school was originally scheduled for Sept. 29. That timeline is up in the air, however, pending additional community input. The agenda for the board’s Tuesday meeting has not yet been posted, so it is unclear how they will be moving forward on the plan.
District leaders declined interviews and relayed The New Mexican’s questions to Jameson. The schools’ respective principals did not respond to requests for comment.
“The intent of combining MVLA and RGPI is to maintain a smaller learning environment option for middle and high school students while the district is facing declining enrollment. Sustaining two separate small schools of choice is not a tenable long-term option, but bringing the programs together allows us to preserve and expand options for students and families,” Jameson wrote, directing The New Mexican to the district’s web page for the 6-12 academy.
But the overarching theme seems to be monetary.
“We have two very small schools that financially — and I hate to say it, but it’s all about finances — were becoming more and more difficult to sustain,” Cort said.
Besides, the 68-student Rio Grande Prep is in year three of its “More Rigorous Intervention” status — the lowest category of New Mexico schools — and could face closure, restructuring or state takeover, depending on the state’s approval of its plan due January.
At the Sept. 1 board meeting, Ruiz made mention of the rapidly approaching deadline: “We’re to the point where we need to make some decisions with RGPI, with closure, and some of those things that we need to finalize,” he said. “And the gains that are expected have not been there.”
Ruiz added at the meeting “part of that is also tied to grant funding,” in reference to the Perkins Grant. The state is currently withholding that money — which is given to high schools with career technical education pathways — due to Rio Grande Prep’s poor performance.
The high school’s 2025-26 and 2024-25 data is masked, as there are too few students in the reporting pool. But in the 2023-24 school year, fewer than 20% of students were proficient in math, with a 11% proficiency rate in reading and 14% in science, according to NM Vistas. Its 2022-23 scores were in the single digits.
Since the new 6-12 school would technically be classified as a high school, the district could recapture those Perkins Grant funds.
“It is a financially driven decision,” Rebecca Cram, a parent at the middle school, said in an interview.
CTE, race, enrollment
Board leaders earlier this fall said the new school’s identity would focus heavily on “career technical education.” A career technical education hub for the district would also be located on the school’s campus.
“CTE is on the [minds] of every single legislator across every political aisle. It is a significant focus of funding moving forward, and it behooves us to be advantageous and strategic about how we get further investments into our schools and create those career pathways,” Patrick Nolan, a school board member, said at the Sept. 29 board meeting.
But to middle schoolers, it’s too early to be thinking about the future.
“That’s great for high school, but for MVLA, [career technical education] just doesn’t work out,” Hakes said. “You’re too young to decide what you want to do with your life.”
Ruiz cited another reason to consolidate: Mesilla Valley is 37.4% Caucasian, while the district is 15.5%. U.S. News & World Report says Rio Grande Prep, meanwhile, is 21.7% white.
“When we talk about underrepresentation, overrepresentation, that was another consideration as we were looking at how to ensure that we best support all of our students across the district,” Ruiz said at a Sept. 1 board meeting.
Screenshot from Las Cruces Public Schools
Parents had qualms with this logic.
“You cannot close down a school because you have too many white students,” said Cobos, who “made the difficult decision” to pull her child out of Mesilla Valley Leadership Academy amid the uncertainty.
“It’s really weird that that’s one of his justifications for closing the really successful school,” Cobos added. “It’s a school of choice, so the student can choose to go to it or not choose to go to it.”
Monica Anderson, who introduced herself as a first-generation Mexican American at the Sept. 29 school board meeting, is a parent at the middle school: “I understand diversity, but I also understand opportunity. I want families from every background to have access to MVLA, but I have not seen evidence that this merger is the solution,” she said.
District leadership said the consolidation could also help increase enrollment at the struggling high school. Rio Grande Preparatory Institute’s enrollment has dropped significantly, from 144 in the 2022-23 school year to 68 this fall.
But the plan is not attractive to all middle school students; both Smith and Hakes intend to enroll at different high schools.
“You see these kids … currently in MVLA, and then they’re leaving. Is that what we’re going to predict what’s going to happen with this new academy?” board member Teresa Tenorio asked at the meeting.
School staffing
Staffing at the 6-12 academy is yet another unanswered question, Deputy Superintendent Wendi Miller-Tomlinson said at the Sept. 29 meeting, adding the district continues to work with the teachers’ union.
But it is not clear whether staff — or students, for that matter — would have to reapply for their positions, nor who the leader of the combined school would be.
Longtime teachers at the middle school — who declined to speak on the record due to fears of retaliation — expressed frustration with how they are being treated, and the lack of input they have been able to provide.
District leadership dismissed these fears as unfounded: “As far as the staffing, obviously there is no retaliation,” Ruiz said at the Sept. 1 board meeting. “As I said, Monday was a great meeting with the staff, and I think they appreciated that we were there and also wanted to listen.”
“It is in our collective bargaining agreement that they will not be retaliated against, and … that’s illegal, and so we would protect them,” said Julie Wojtko, president of the National Education Association’s Las Cruces chapter. “But it’s one thing to tell them that, and another thing for them to believe it wholeheartedly and take those steps to to speak to somebody, so I can understand that.”
Wojtko added the district is “following the collective bargaining agreement in a collaborative manner with the union to ensure that all staffing is agreeable.”
For Smith, the student council president, one of the biggest worries is losing the teachers at the middle school if the 6-12 academy is approved.
“I know that they’re all amazing and it can be hard to find … a new job so quickly, especially if they wouldn’t know until they reapply,” Smith said. “That’s something I’ve been concerned about.”
Screenshot from Las Cruces Public Schools
‘Done our due diligence’
As the board approaches a vote on the school’s approval — despite no longer having a scheduled date for that decision — Ruiz said he feels like the proper amount of feedback had been collected.
“We have done our due diligence on this as far as … incorporating the input from our community, from MVLA parents,” Ruiz said at the Sept. 29 board meeting.
Miller-Tomlinson said the district will leave open indefinitely an online survey for people to submit their opinions on the academy.
But parents remain dissatisfied, repeating the fact that the consolidation itself was presented as inevitable.
“The concern is they’re forcing us to negotiate details about this new school when we don’t even want a new school, and a new school hasn’t even been approved,” Cobos said.
Julia Gentin is a reporter for The Las Cruces New Mexican, The Santa Fe New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico through a partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. She covers the Southern New Mexico region. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
