Las Cruces parents hope to see school year calendar change

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (CBS4) — Las Cruces Public Schools hosted its first-ever town hall meeting to discuss the calendar for the upcoming school year.

About 25 parents along with members of the Las Cruces National Education Association attended the meeting at Las Cruces Public School Administrative building Thursday night.

The majority of the parents who attended the meeting expressed frustration about the current balanced calendar and said they would like the district to switch back to the traditional one.

“Based on what I’ve heard there the majority is in favor of draft B which goes back to the more original calendar we’ve been used to,” Renee Sanchez said.

The balanced calendar includes multiple two-week intercession breaks for students and teachers but takes away about three weeks from the traditional school year calendar.

“It was a little bit difficult actually I was not a big fan of it, I did not feel like my kids really progressed with those large breaks, like the two-week breaks, I felt like a lot of what they learned had to be retaught when they went back to school,” Matthew Gaskins said.

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Some parents who spoke at the meeting mentioned concerns about childcare. And for some divorced families it created difficulty to arrange custody agreements.

“It’s made it harder for me to have to come up with additional babysitting rounds for me to have to take care of my kids,” Amber H said.

“I have split families, split custodies, I have a stepchild that comes home over the summer, and we didn’t get to spend time with him as much, it affected us a lot,” Maddie White said.

Parents also brought up the concern of students having a hard time retaining the information taught due to the multiple breaks.

While the majority of people who spoke at the meeting were against the balanced calendar, one bus driver with LCPS said it's something that could work for students but it will take some adjusting from students and parents.

“It takes a while for everyone to get used to the new schedule, for everyone to work around, find the childcare they need, find the time with their families they need, but overall the kids tend to retain a lot more of what they have learned from the previous year," the driver said.

The next calendar town hall meeting will be on Tuesday and the board is expected to vote on Feb.21.

Parents who were unavailable to attend the town hall can submit their concerns via email at input@lcps.net.

View calendar option A here and option B here.

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