News Brief
New Las Cruces School Will Pave Way for Study of Health Sciences
Las Cruces Sun-News (New Mexico) (04/24/13) Ramirez, SteveLas Cruces educators and state officials broke ground on New Mexico's first medical and allied healthcare early college high school, which will be an expansion of the Arrowhead Park Early College High School, located at the southeast end of the New Mexico State University campus. This will become the second early college high school in the Las Cruces school district, the third in Dona Ana County, and the fourth in the state. Construction on the three-building campus is anticipated to begin in June, and classes are scheduled to start there in August 2014. The new school will enroll about 250 students, about 60 per each of the four grade levels taught there, with admission likely to be be based on a lottery system. The campus will include a medical classroom area with possible cadaver, observation, and simulation rooms, and it also could offer dentistry classes and become a beta testing site for medical equipment and furniture or a place where current health professionals meet their continuing education requirements. State Education Secretary designate Hanna Skandera notes, "Early college high school has really changed the bar" in terms of filling jobs in the healthcare and social assistance sector, which is expected to need another 5.6 million workers through 2020. Skandera adds, "It is about a need for our kids, and it is a need we will deliver. This one (school) will be a national model."
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