Living In Las Cruces- Spring/Summer 2008

EDUCATION

By Charlotte Tallman

The school opened 34 years ago with a strong desire to offer local students a Christian education. As an accredited member of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), the State of New Mexico and the North Central Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA) the school follows a strict guideline of standards as a college preparatory school, helping nearly all the students obtain scholarships for their college tuition by the time they graduate.

The success of the students, now 490 strong, in the kindergarten through 12th grade school might have a lot to do with the curriculum the Curriculum and Education Committee (made up of the MVCS Board of Trustees) selects, including Abeka, Bob Jones, ACSI and Saxon Math textbooks. A site-based, teacher-directed curriculum guide is updated annually to better serve the students each year. Along with prime education, the school also offers competitive athletics in basketball, volleyball, baseball, golf, cross country and cheerleading.

The school is staying up with current technology, purchasing interactive SmartBoards for some classrooms, and the school hopes to fill the school with even more. "It is our goal to eventually get them in all the classrooms," says Susan Beardsley, president of the board, of the SmartBoards purchased with fundraising money through the school's annual Jog-A-Thon. The school also has a new computer lab and Edline services so teachers can post grade information and class work securely on the web.

The campus, seven acres located on Stern Drive, has four classroom buildings, an elementary lunchroom/daycare building, a choir and band room, library, full computer lab, gymnasium, snack bar, high school and middle school science labs and three administrative offices. Growth, however, is always in the horizon, and the school is closer to a new high school building after zoning for the majority of the land unanimously passed the zoning commission.

"We knew that we could not continue accommodating growth without the building, and we would like to provide a Christian education to anyone who wants it,"
Susan says.

MVCS plans to build a new high school on a parcel of land a little over a mile from the current school following a capital campaign in which $3.5 million must be raised.

"My hope is that we break ground within the year, but we are waiting for the money to be pledged or to come in. We certainly don't want to go into debt," Susan says.