Welcome Back Students, Parents, and Staff

As we start this new school year, I was reflecting back on the 2009-10 school year and all that was accomplished despite the severe budgetary constraints that we were forced to operate under. Under the supervision of the Los Lunas Schools Board of Education, Los Lunas Schools was one of 63 school districts out of 27,000 nationwide that was accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI) and achieved the distinguished classification of District Accreditation. We are still the only public school district in this state to achieve this standing. Bosque Farms Elementary School received the Blue Ribbon School Award. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private elementary, middle and high schools that are either academically superior or that demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement. This program is part of a larger Department of Education effort to identify and disseminate knowledge about the best school leadership and teaching practices. Los Lunas Schools was named by The Sunshine Review, which is dedicated to ranking state and government openness, as one of the top three school districts in the state with the most financial transparency. Los Lunas Schools had the highest graduation rate for any school district in the state with a graduating class of more than 180 seniors. Our graduation classes totaled approximately 700 seniors. Los Lunas Schools recently received a $300,000 Solar Energy Grant that could help us save almost $21,000 a year in electric bills. We were one of 15 schools to be awarded this grant and have already received national recognition in a news story that was published by the U.S. Department of Energy. Despite an extremely harsh and adverse financial environment, Los Lunas Schools was able to finish the school year in the black while still accomplishing major achievements with less money.

We are again faced with even more severe budget cuts for this upcoming school year but again, we have bold and aggressive plans laid out for this school year. Foremost is the High School Reform package that we have put into place for this school year. Through the dedicated use of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) which fosters more collaboration between teachers and the creation of daily intervention time for students who need additional assistance with their coursework, we expect to see even higher graduation rates and a much lower dropout rate from our high schools. We will continue with the Advanced Placement Course work and College Dual Enrollment at both LLHS and VHS. We will continue with instructional methods and curricula that support understanding and mastery of language and math skills at the elementary school level. We will continue to bring in to the district nationally acclaimed trainers in curricular and instructional strategies to ensure that our teachers are highly qualified and well informed in the foremost instructional methods in the country.

The Los Lunas Schools Board of Education, the Administration, and Staff of Los Lunas Schools, will do everything in our power to make your child’s time with us as valuable and productive as possible. Without you as parents and the community as a whole supporting and encouraging our students to focus on their education and put to productive use what they have learned, what we have to offer is wasted. The old proverb that “It takes a village to raise a child” is true. Although it is the parent’s primary responsibility for the well being of their children, it is all of our responsibility to make sure that a child understands the value and need for an education. Los Lunas Schools can provide the instruction, materials, text books, access to technology and everything else necessary for a quality education. The key is that the student must find value in education and apply it to a productive life. Los Lunas Schools has graduated many, many students over the years that have gone on to prestigious universities and made a successful career and life for themselves. The key is that the student must want to learn and apply what they learn to higher ideals. We need each of you to help us instill in our students the value of education, because “people will not take care of what they do not own and they will not take ownership in what they do not value.”   

On behalf of the Los Lunas Schools Board of Education, I would like to wish the students, parents, teachers, support staff and the leadership team of Los Lunas Schools a productive and successful school year.

SSincerely, 

Bernard R. Saiz 
Superintendent