Los Lunas Schools to implement strategic plan during new school year

LOS LUNAS — “Everybody is eager to see students in the hallways and classrooms again,” said Los Lunas Schools Superintendent Ryan Kettler, Ph.D, of the upcoming school year, which begins for students Aug. 1.

LLS will once again be providing free, basic school supplies for all students for the 2024-25 school year. Families will still need to purchase personal items though, including backpacks, lunch bags, water bottles and the like.

The district has several ambitious goals and projects going into the 2024-25 school year, including the roll out of a district-wide strategic plan developed by Kettler and his partnership with Loom, an external company.

“Our goal (through priority one) is to complete, implement and monitor the strategic plan to guide us through 2029 so that we’re consistent and have clarity and high expectations across the district,” said Kettler.

The second priority, building trust with families to serve as partners in their students’ academic learning, is something Kettler also wants to focus on this year, which he aims to address through some new initiatives.

“I’m going to start a podcast talking about different issues in Los Lunas Schools,” he said. “It’s more time efficient. Plus, with a podcast, I can have different principals, teachers or community members on there to interview and get their perspective and input.”

Kettler said he plans to do these monthly starting in August, and the podcast “Los Lunas Schools Today” will be available on Apple and Spotify streaming services. He said he will also start hosting monthly coffee with the superintendent meetings throughout the new school year.

“It’s a one-hour meeting where anybody can come in and we’ll have coffee and just talk about issues that we’re facing or things we need to work on,” he said. “Each month will be at a different (school site) location. We’ll publish a schedule of those hopefully around Aug. 1.”

Kettler said he also plans on revamping the newsletter he tried to start in the spring so that “it’s more consistent month-to-month and is easily available to families.”

The third priority is to build systems, strategy and capacity to support effective instruction, the superintendent said, so the goal for that priority is to increase proficiency in reading and math by 4 percent each year over the next five years.

“We want to provide all teachers effective, aligned professional development,” he said. “We want to provide dedicated support in coaching to principals, and we want to make sure every classroom has high-quality curriculum and assessments that are tied to grade-level instruction.”

Kettler also wants to focus on increasing retention of high-performing staff through priority four, which is to develop strong people systems to foster a strong student-centered culture in LLS.

LLS will also be going into the new school year with a special 3 mill levy election, which dedicates a small percentage of property taxes to LLS to maintain and stay up-to-date with technology. Continuation of the 3 mill levy comes with no tax rate increase, and ballots must be postmarked by Aug. 13 to qualify.

The district also has several facility improvement projects in the works that will continue into the 2024-25 school year including a rebuild of Peralta Elementary, Los Lunas High School stadium improvements and the district was also recently awarded design funding from the state for Ann Parish Elementary for significant renovations or an entire rebuild of the school.

“I believe the (request for proposals) for an architect went out last week. Once selected, they will evaluate the current building and see if it could just be remodeled, or if it needs an entire new building,” he said.

Four more schools, including Desert View and Valencia elementary and Valencia and Los Lunas middle schools, will be joining Ann Parish and Katherine Gallegos elementary schools in implementing an inclusive education model in the new school year.

“So regardless of whether they have a disability or they’re a speaker of a minority language, they have the same opportunity as every other student,” he said.

This entails all students remaining in their home classroom for instruction to provide students access to equal learning opportunities. Kettler said classrooms implementing this typically have a special education and general education teacher working in tandem together in the classroom.

“We have great staff who care not only about the kid’s academic success, but their overall well being,” said Kettler. “We’re working towards being consistent every day to meet our students where they’re at and help them move forward.”

(Editor’s Note: Late Tuesday, the Los Lunas Board of Education placed Superintendent Ryan Kettler on paid administrative leave, and appointed Jessica Montano, the district’s assistant superintendent of school leadership, as the acting superintendent. Read more at news-bulletin.com and in next week’s paper.)