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I am running for re-election to the Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education to continue meeting the needs of young people. What I have witnessed is that our board of directors, district leaders, educators, employees, partners, and families want to support student success. We all know that we need to work together to reimagine and re-envision the systems that enable young people to thrive and healthier, more prosperous communities. Thankfully, the New Mexico State Legislature created the Innovation Zone Initiative and is providing $200,000 to help transform high schools within the district.
The Innovation Zone has a broad focus. This includes career and technical education, Capstone projects, and work-based learning. We appreciate that school districts can choose the most promising areas of focus for their students. Specifically, you can focus on students who need innovation. number one As a starting point for our transformation. Focusing on young people who are not on track to graduate is critical. Because many of them have complex lives that require them to work, care for younger siblings, and cope with the social and emotional pressures that come with adolescence in the modern world.
Many of these students have irregular attendance and miss credits, and require our attention, care, and attention. LCPS responded with a program that gives youth the opportunity to earn multiple credits through community-based capstone projects. This is a creative approach by district leaders. The best learning happens by doing. It also incorporates the fact that the real world is interdisciplinary and does not segregate learning into areas such as mathematics, language arts, or history.
Redress in the Martinez-Yazzi case requires innovations like this moving forward. Connecting young people to their communities through capstone projects creates opportunities to embrace the language, culture, and values of young people and their families. By implementing this strategy with partners like Success Partnership, we feel we are on the right track. This is a testament to the trust our community has in our students and our school.
This initiative is a big deal! Our young people are talented. What we need to do is give them the opportunity to prove it by redesigning schools to adapt to their stated needs, rather than the other way around. This is a significant restructuring of our efforts. LCPS is one of 47 districts established through the Innovation Zone Initiative from a pool of more than 80 applicants. This disparity shows that educators across New Mexico want to do what’s best for young people, but clearly lack sufficient funding. While our stories are unique to us, all members of the Innovation Zone are pursuing what they believe will best serve our students and community, and that’s what’s great about this work. While recipients are excited that Congress, the Secretary of Education, and the Governor have embraced the Innovation Zones initiative, more funding is needed for bottom-up, community-based strategies like this. I hope this initiative will receive increased funding when Congress convenes in January 2024 to expand this effort locally and support other innovative efforts across the state. hoping.
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