Education: Las Cruces’ Sunrise Elementary Celebrates Community School Designation with Ribbon Cutting

Students, school staff, city leaders, district administrators, and members of the LCPS Board of Education gathered Friday, March 6, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the school’s new designation as the eighth community school in the district.

The designation comes after several years of planning aimed at expanding services and strengthening connections between the school, families, and the broader community.

“We’ve been working on becoming a community school for about three years now,” said Johnny Rivera, Community Schools manager for Las Cruces Public Schools. “This is going to continue to bring resources to our students, to our families, and to our educators.”

Rivera said the community school model helps coordinate and align services while ensuring parents and families have a meaningful voice in campus decisions.

“We’re also going to be more empowered to bring in our parents to help us have that equity in voice and in making decisions,” Rivera said.

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Supporting East Mesa Families

According to information released by LCPS, Sunrise Community Elementary will help address the needs of students and families living on the East Mesa side of Las Cruces.

Community schools within the district connect families with a variety of support services, including:

• Mental health resources
• Medical services
• Social-emotional support
• Nutrition assistance

While each campus offers different programs based on local needs, the overall mission remains the same: to create a supportive environment that helps students and families succeed.

Partnerships Across the Community

In a release written by LCPS Communications Officer Samantha Lewis, the district noted that community schools build partnerships with local institutions to expand services and opportunities for students.

Those partners include Doña Ana Community College, New Mexico State University, the NMSU College of Health, Education and Social Transformation, La Clinica de Familia, and Casa de Mi Alma.

Community school coordinators work closely with students and staff, conducting regular check-ins and helping identify resources that support academic success and address issues such as chronic absenteeism.

“Once you listen to students and families about what they want to see here on the campus, those community partnerships can really find where they fit,” Rivera said.

Empowering Families to Get Involved

Rivera encouraged families connected to the campus to become involved.

“If you’re a family member that has ties to the campus, you have a student here, get involved,” Rivera said. “The biggest quality of a community school is empowering students and their families.”

At LCPS, community schools focus on six key components: student and family engagement, collaborative leadership, expanded learning opportunities, community-connected classroom instruction, a culture of belonging, and integrated systems of support.

For Sunrise Elementary, the new designation represents both a celebration and the start of an expanded effort to connect East Mesa families with resources designed to support students both inside and outside the classroom.