Santa Fe Standard

A struggling charter school in Las Cruces has made significant improvements and will stay open, the New Mexico Public Education Commission (PEC) has announced.

The commission voted in December 2018 not to renew La Academia Delores Huerta’s charter, a move that the public middle school successfully appealed.

In response, the commission set up a rigorous correction plan, and the school has met its initial milestones, according to a report in the Las Cruces Sun-News.

La Academia is a dual English-Spanish-language school named in honor of the New Mexico native and activist who, with Cesar Chavez, founded the organization that became the United Farm Workers union. According to its website, it alternates languages weekly and teaches the standard curricula along with Latino art forms and art. It has a capacity of 120 students but currently only 82 are enrolled.

After the school won its appeal, the PEC set up a series of requirements. According to the Sun-News, these included a 10% increase in math and reading proficiency by at least 65% of students by the end of last fall’s semester, and an additional 10% this spring. Last month, school officials reported to the PEC that it had met the fall milestone in language arts, which had been what instructors were concentrating on, and anticipates the same result when students are tested at the end of the spring term, in May. The school intends to focus on math achievement this spring.

The school faced more difficult challenges than normal in achieving that goal. Setbacks included a ransomware attack in October that shut down all of the internet service in Las Cruces Public Schools just as students were preparing for assessment testing.

Shortly thereafter, its principal, Melissa Miranda, abruptly resigned. The school also had a high rate of teacher turnover during the year and lost some funding because it had stopped recruiting new students and that affected funds it received from the state.

The new principal, Galvan de Lucero, instituted a school-wide curriculum (previously each teacher developed their own) that he credited with improving achievement.