Newspaper looks at growth’s impact on schools

As part of its continuing series on growth, the Las Cruces Sun-News today examined the impact on schools and the difficulties the Las Cruces Public Schools is having keeping up.

A couple of interesting points: In a second article, the newspaper reported that New Mexico State University is prepared for growth and, with its current infrastructure, can handle 15 percent growth. That’s quite a contrast to LCPS, which is struggling to keep up.

Also interesting is the fact that the school district has been largely kept out of the loop on development. Its officials didn’t know about the current and controversial East Mesa development under consideration by the Las Cruces City Council, The Vistas at Presidio, until recently. The school district has no representation on the Extraterritorial Zoning Authority or other boards that keep track of and regulate growth.

That should change. Our school system should have a voice in how this community grows and easy access to information about growth so it can plan for the future.