The Las Cruces Public Schools (LCPS) district is adopting an extended school year, due to the lingering impact of the pandemic.
Teacher burnout and stress from remote learning have prompted one of the state’s largest school districts to add an extra 10 days to the school year, according to KRQE.
“This is the best opportunity for students to provide some extremely innovative ways to improve learning in the classroom,” LCPS spokesman Kelly Jameson said to KRQE. “Funding is a work in progress … how that is going to be allocated for; resources in the classroom, how we are going to use it for, field trip opportunities and experiential learning.”
The school year will now end on June 1 or 2, depending on which grade students are in. LCPS students will have longer spring and winter breaks but only six weeks for summer break, according to KRQE. Some parents are unsatisfied with this change, saying they wish there had been more planning.
“This has far more to do with us as parents wanting to hold the district accountable to the time they already have our children,” parent Kelly Bloomfield told KRQE. “What our district needs is to be more stringent with attendance to get these kids in the classroom to have these meaningful engagements every day.”
KRQE reported that most parents of Albuquerque Public Schools students oppose extended learning, but the schools are allowed to make their own decisions. Currently, 20 elementary schools have opted in to the schedule change.
State funding allows $500 per student for extended learning, or approximately $13 million in total.
