Mesilla Valley Leadership Academy dances its way onto new campus

MESILLA - The Mesilla Valley Leadership Academy officially opened its third location with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday morning that transformed into an outdoor dance party.

The middle school, founded as the Mesilla Valley Alternative Middle School four years ago, has moved to a group of portable buildings located next to the Rio Grande Preparatory Institute, a high school at the corner of Avenida de Mesilla and W. Boutz Road. 

Though in the town of Mesilla, both schools are part of Las Cruces Public Schools.

Principal Toni Hull said the school was founded "with a collective vision to reimagine school," which presently includes mixed-grade classes combining sixth, seventh and eighth graders and project-oriented learning.

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"We are rethinking and redesigning and reimagining what school could look like, to suit every learner," Hull said.

On hand for the celebration were New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales and Mesilla Mayor Nora Barraza, along with Las Cruces school board member Ray Jaramillo. They were joined by school district officials and representatives from the Greater Las Cruces and Hispanic chambers of commerce.

The middle school was originally in the Mesilla Park neighborhood in south Las Cruces, in the historic 1949 Bell Avenue schoolhouse built as the Mesilla Park Elementary Rural School. 

In 2018, the school moved onto the campus of Lynn Middle School on Walnut Street, when Hull was tapped to be principal of both Lynn and MVLA. The cohabitation of two schools on a single campus prompted some student protests. 

This year, MVLA has held classes under the roof of high school Rio Grande Preparatory Institute as about nine portable structures next to RGPI were prepared, along with a new parking and dropoff area. 

After Hull cut the ceremonial ribbon, students performed choreographed dances combinations which soon turned into a free-form dance party involving all of the 80-plus students and their teachers.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.

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