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“I think the best career in New Mexico right now is to be a teacher,” Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Ralph Ramos said.
With increases in salaries and benefits teachers received this year, along with the school district’s new balanced calendar and other changes, “people are excited to be here,” said Ramos, a former teacher, coach and principal who is completing his second year as LCPS superintendent. He has been with LCPS for 28 years.
It’s also a pretty good time to be an LCPS student.
Fees have been eliminated for all student activities, Ramos said, technology has “advance(d) 10 years into the future” and schools are more focused than ever on insuring success for both college-bound students and those who are looking for good-paying jobs immediately after they graduate from high school.
“What are we not offering our students?” is a question Ramos has frequently been asking, he said, as he encourages teachers, administrators and other staff to be innovative as they guide the classroom and extra-curricular activities of about 24,000 students in nearly 40 schools in Las Cruces, Doña Ana and Mesilla and on White Sands Missile Range.
Ramos said LCPS’ priorities for the 2023 legislative session will include sufficient funding for transportation for after-school programs; enhanced school safety and security, including gun safety and awareness; behavioral health support; community schools; upgraded career and technical education infrastructure and facilities; and salary and benefits funding support for teachers and other staff.
“Let’s keep fighting for those raises,” Ramos said.
A major focus for the district is early childhood education, he said. LCPS is serving about 1,600 three- and four-year-olds, he said, but there are nearly four times that number of children who need services.
That’s why Ramos said he will ask the legislature to fund early childhood education centers in Las Cruces and southwest New Mexico. Helping children to thrive before they begin school is a critical part of making sure they graduate from high school, he said.
“It starts with teachers making connections with kids,” Ramos said.
It’s also about making sure students and staff are safe in their schools and classrooms, the superintendent said.
LCPS is in the process of ensuring that every campus has a six-foot security fence and is also enhancing security by installing secure vestibules in all buildings, Ramos said.
There are school resource officers – armed police officers – at every LCPS middle and high school, Ramos said, and the New Mexico State Police and Las Cruces Police Department have “adopted” local elementaries, with offices at the schools which they regularly visit.
LCPS schools have “access to law enforcement like never before,” he said.
LCPS has a no-tolerance policy for bullying, violence and drug use on school campuses, Ramos said, but the school district is moving away from suspending students in favor of in-school interventions, which are a better way to help them learn from their inappropriate behavior, he said.
Because “everybody needs to grow,” Ramos said he supports professional development not only for teachers, but also for administrators, school counselors and custodians.
He would also like to see a stronger connection among all educational institutions that serve students in Doña Ana County, with LCPS, Gadsden Independent School District and Hatch Valley Public Schools, and including school board members from each school district and members of the Doña Ana Community College Advisory Board.
With the new balanced calendar that added 10 days of instruction and other innovations, LCPS has “a model system in place for others to follow,” Ramos said. The school district has a grant for five electric buses, as it begins to change most of its fleet from diesel engines to EV, he said.
And, school technology is on a three-year rotation cycle, Ramos said, to make ensure regular upgrades. With high-speed connection and hot spots across the district, LCPS is committed to making sure every student has internet access.
Every LCPS school has “a media fingerprint,” he said, and is using television and social media platforms to “showcase a lot of the positive things that are happening.”
The school district wants to use highly successful community schools concept to broaden career and technical education for students to better prepare them for college and the workforce, Ramos said.
LCPS is getting noticed other school districts around the state, Ramos said, because “the same old, same old is not getting them there.”
“I want to move New Mexico … to the top 10” in public education, Ramos said.
LCPS by the numbers
2022-23 school year
Schools: 37 (22 elementary schools, eight middle schools, one K-8 school, four comprehensive high schools, one alternative high school, one early college high school)
LCPS Board of Education: District 1: Ray Jaramillo, board president; District 2: Pamela Cort, secretary; District 3: Robert Wofford, member; District 5: Teresa Tenorio, vice president; District 5: Carol Cooper, member.
Visit www.lcps.net.
LCPS newscast
Las Cruces Public Schools has begun a districtwide newscast.
“It’s just another way to tell the stories of LCPS students and all the great work teachers are doing to support them,” said LCPS Public Relations Coordinator Samantha Lewis.
Here are the links to the first three newscasts:
For additional episodes and more information, visit www.lcps.net.
