LAS CRUCES – At present, the Las Cruces Public School District has nearly 25,000 students attending
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The 7th and 8th grades at South Ward School, circa 1900, pose for a class photo. South Ward, built in 1893, was the first school building in Las Cruces. It was torn down in 1926 when students were moved to Central School. |
classes in 25 elementary schools, eight middle schools, four high schools (it will become five when Centennial High School opens in August 2012), Mesilla Valley Training Center and CrossRoads long-term suspension program. The district has more than 1,600 teachers and about 3,300 total employees. Including Centennial High School, the district has 47 school and administrative sites equaling about 3.5 million square feet covering about 900 acres.
The first school building in Las Cruces was South Ward School, built in 1893 on land now occupied by the LCPS Administration Building. South Ward was a one-story, red-brick building used until 1926 when it was judged unsafe and students were moved to Central School.
A 1900-01 Las Cruces Public Schools catalogue lists a local population of 4,000, and 323 students in the public schools. (Some students have marks by their names, with this explanation: “Those designated by the X have not attended lately.”)
The schools had a three-person board of directors: Prisiliano Moreno, Jose R. Lucero and Luis D. Valdez; two officers of the board: Moreno, chairman, and Valdez, clerk; and a faculty of Superintendent S. C. Pandolfo; assistants Miss Lessie Etheridge, Sister Genova and Sister Benita; and Miss Ivan Mean, B.S., principal of Ward School.
The catalogue describes the “Public School System” as follows: “In the south part of Las Cruces, is a large brick building, which has four spacious rooms, well furnished with single and double patient desks, also many other neccessaries (sic), such as maps, globes, and so forth. In the north part of town, is the ward school, which is likewise supplied with modern school furniture, and is ample to satisfy the demand.”
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Old Central High School is shown in this undated photo. The school was on the site of the current Central Elementary School. |
The catalogue says, “The public schools have always been the friends of the people, and no other system has ever accomplished the good that they have. The different legislatures in the several states have long since decided this, in establishing public schools, that the rich and the poor, side by side, might attend, and receive the self-same instruction, which is for the betterment of each generation. In a republican form of government, general education is considered of paramount importance, hence the public schools. Cite me in a community, a town, or a city that has an excellent public school system, and I will point to one that is alive to its needs and requirements. A man who is unfriendly to public schools is an enemy to his country.”
Under “Remarks,” the catalogue says “Let every person see that his children are regular and punctual in attending school. It is of the utmost importance that no pupil lose even a day; because, when time is misspent, it is irrevocably lost. Every hour that your child stays out of school, he misses something that he may never get.”
The Las Cruces school system wound up with some 17 different school districts at one time, most containing a single school. Eventually, there were three major systems. In January 1954, the district consolidated into one system: Las Cruces Public Schools.
The first LCPS bond election was held April 26, 1955, with 488 “yes” votes and 34 “no” votes approving $510,000 for the district. Since then, bond elections have been held in 1956-60, 1962, 1964-67, 1973, 1979, 1982, 1988, 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2010. The capital improvements levy was added to the ballot in 1979. No bond or levy has ever been defeated.
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| Centennial High School, the only high school that will open in New Mexico during the state's centennial year, opens its doors to students August 13, 2012. |
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