A new home for La Academia Dolores Huerta

For students at La Academia Dolores Huerta, the question was no longer where they would attend classes next, but when they would finally have a school of their own. 

After years of changing locations and beginning this school year in borrowed classrooms, the Las Cruces charter middle school has settled into a renovated campus at 2020 S. Solano Drive. The school celebrated its grand opening Friday, Oct. 16, following a lengthy search for a stable location. 

For Superintendent and Head Principal Sylvy Galvan de Lucero, the move has brought relief after months of uncertainty over where students would attend classes and how teachers would continue their work. 

“It’s just a deep breath that we can finally take and feel a huge weight lifted off our shoulders,” Galvan de Lucero said. 

Established during the 2004-05 school year, La Academia Dolores Huerta serves students in sixth through eighth grades. Its educational model combines English and Spanish instruction with core academics and cultural arts programs, including mariachi, conjunto and ballet folklórico. 

While the school’s mission has remained largely unchanged, its location has shifted several times over the past two decades. 

The school first operated in a privately owned building on North Main Street before moving to a building it leased from Las Cruces Public Schools at 400 W. Bell Ave. It later held classes at Alma d’Arte Charter High School while administrators searched for a longer-term location. 

Galvan de Lucero and business manager Myrna Rodriguez spent days driving around Las Cruces looking for vacant buildings that could accommodate a middle school. They contacted property owners and real estate agents, comparing possible locations and renovation costs with the school’s budget. 

Their search led them to the Solano Drive property, a former medical office building that required extensive remodeling to accommodate classrooms and other school facilities. The school secured a 10-year lease, with the possibility of extending the arrangement. 

Even after finding the property, construction and permitting delays prevented students from moving in at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year. 

Students spent the first two weeks at New Mexico State University’s O’Donnell Hall before temporarily attending classes at Immaculate Heart of Mary. Those arrangements allowed teachers to continue instruction while renovations were completed. 

The disruptions affected daily operations. Staff relied on mobile hotspots for internet access, traveled to printing businesses for classroom materials, and adapted lessons to temporary facilities. 

“My office basically became my backpack,” Galvan de Lucero said. 

Parents adjusted to changing drop-off and pickup locations, while teachers and staff helped pack classrooms, transport supplies, and prepare the new building. Galvan de Lucero credited families and community members with helping the school continue operating throughout the moves. 

She said students remained patient through much of the transition, but as the weeks passed, some began asking when they would finally be able to move into their own building. 

For this year’s eighth graders, the changes have meant attending a different campus during each year of middle school. 

The new location offers classrooms with fresh paint and flooring, and a building students can identify as their own. Displays inside the campus recognize teachers, staff, and community supporters who helped during the transition. 

Galvan de Lucero said the school’s smaller environment remains an important part of its identity, offering students more individualized support alongside its dual-language and cultural programs. She hopes the new location will also help the school grow and reach more families. 

The school had openings for sixth- and seventh-grade students at the time of her interview. 

“That’s my school. That’s my campus,” she said, describing what she hopes students will be able to say when they pass the building. 

Looking back on the school’s journey, Galvan de Lucero credited the families, staff members, businesses and volunteers who helped keep it going. 

“We’re like the little engine that could or the little school that could,” she said. “We’re still at it.”