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Welcome to Las Cruces Academy's online home! We're a private, secular school for gifted and academically advanced children who thrive in this alternative to other schools. Our focus is on languages, math, and science, but we fill out a good education with a variety of other subject areas. All children learn English, Spanish, and Chinese. We also understand that good teachers, intellectual freedom and engagement, and a supportive social environment are the most valuable gifts we can give to students. Please read on, and, if you wish to explore having your child join us, please visit the Admissions page at right. The navigation bar at right leads you to much more detail about our philosophy and curriculum (or you can click here). We also are pleased to share news of what is happening at the school currently. We are starting our second year of classes on Monday, August 16th, 2010, now extending to grades K-5. Our preview day has passed, but you're very welcome to visit us in person; please make an appointment by calling the director, Dr. Lou Ellen Kay, at .

We plan to grow into a pre-K to 12 school on a permanent campus of our own, utlimately with room for 350 students. We are actively seeking both the land and the capital funding; please see our Updates section below. For the 2010-2011 school year, we will have students in grades K - 5. The school day is long, in formal terms (8:15-4:15) but students love to stay longer. Students can arrive as early as 7:30 AM and stay as long as 5:30 PM, as a convenience for parents and guardians.

Our faculty is growing. For the 2010-2011 school year, we have hired Ruth Wong as director of our new music program and math teacher, and Debbie Cota as our early childhood specialist. Our beloved Spanish teacher, Yolanda Guevara, had to bid us goodbye after a fine first year; we will miss her. Teacher Paula Hines will take over Spanish teaching. Paula and Debbie just completed the first summer's training of the Scottish Rite phonics program, considered by our advisers to be the finest program available. Paula Hines has also been appointed as the Assistant Director of the Academy, reflecting her previous experience and excellent performance. Our award-winning Chinese teacher, Mei Dai, continues with us, as also our remarkable English teacher, Liz Coll. Director Lou Ellen Kay will, of course, continue teaching science and assisting in other subjects.

Our students and their parents truly enjoy our school. The following comment comes from a parent who was writing to a friend who was providing a reference for the student during admission process.

“I met with the Director of Las Cruces Academy … and I am impressed with the school's approach to teaching and learning. I am particularly pleased that they believe in helping the students develop into responsible young people…”

This comment is a portion of a thank you letter from a parent to the Director at the end of the first academic year.

“We can’t thank you enough for providing M with an absolutely amazing first year of school. LCA has not only made it possible for him to begin his formal education but it has allowed him to grow & thrive beyond all expectations. Most important though, M loves school & learning. There is no greater gift than this.”

Comment from a parent at the beginning of the second year of school.

“I was pleased last year with the education A received in Chinese. However, I was even more impressed when a private Chinese teacher in Germany, where we were spending the summer, told me that A was the best young student she had ever taught. The teacher was amazed by the number of characters that A already knew after only one year of study and the fact that Mei Dai, the Chinese teacher at the Academy, taught the characters rather than the much simpler phonetic symbols.” (Note - the phonetic symbols are useful for tourists or those with a limited education.)

Portion of an email from the parent of a new student at the beginning of the 2010 – 2011 school year.

“Every day when I pick her up she comments on how much she loves school…..it is so nice to hear!”

Our students of all ages do hands-on science. Presentations and demonstrations are given by Ph. D. scientists. We use the highly successful Singapore math program. Our students spontaneously count in Chinese or Spanish when they exercise. They have access to over 3,000 books that have been donated and purchased by many people.

In our Articles of Incorporation we have given ourselves a mandate to do outreach to the community and the public schools. A concrete plan is for our students themselves to develop and run a public museum. In this effort they will use a number of scientific and cultural artifacts that the Academy founders, Drs. Lou Ellen Kay and Vincent Gutschick, have acquired in their scientific careers and in travels to 36 nations. As a kick-off for our outreach, we have written a series of one-page light essays on interesting topics in science. These are reachable by clicking on an Outreach link.

Take the time to learn more about us, then contact us to arrange an in-person visit or just to let us know what you think! Click on the Admissions tab at the right if you are interested in enrolling your child.


Updates:

First day of classes for the 2010-2011 academic year is Monday, August 16th.

Coming soon: Auctions and world culture events. Director Lou Ellen Kay, secretary/treasurer Vince Gutschick, their son, David Gutschick, and friend Sue Shiao recently traveled to Indonesia, specifically to Sulawesi and Bali. This trip was a long-overdue vacation and also an expedition to buy art and artifacts to sell in order to raise money for the Academy. We are in contact with gallery owners to arrange shows and auctions. The shows and public events will also allow us to share many cultural insights from the world's 4th most populous nation and its vast diversity, natural, cultural, religious, and political. Our events are planned to included photo and video presentations as well as displays of paintings, musical instruments, masks, carvings, textiles, and more. We'll announce this on this webpage and other venues. These events and the gallery shows and auctions are planned for the fall semester.

Open house events: We will be posting the dates of events for the fall, 2010 semester shortly. In any case, you're welcome to visit us at other times. Please call the Director, Dr. Lou Ellen Kay, at .

Science and technology demos in our first year, 2009-2010: Dr. Will Beattie gave a series of science lectures on a number of Friday afternoons. He engaged the students about sound, optical illusions, vortices in the air, magnetism, and static electricity. Dr. Beattie also generously donated to the Academy his extensive collection of demonstration apparatus and the book he wrote about them. Dr. John Mercurio brought the concepts of airplant flight to the students. Dr. Vince Gutschick showed how satellites image our earth, what we know about the moon and Saturn, and how computers work at the fundamental level. David Gutschick and four of our students built computers that are used in the Academy.

Cherries and Chocolate, Our annual fundraiser and our showcase to the community was a success. Please click here for an overview of the event that was held on February 20th, 2010.

Good news - community support:

Scholarships: El Paso Electric Company gave the Academy $2,500 to be used toward scholarships. Todd Dickson of the Las Cruces Bulletin took pictures of ELPE Vice President Clay Doyle giving us the check, with our students gathered in front. This generous bequest expands the funds we have been given by individuals. We will be setting up the best ways to distribute these funds soon, particularly to broaden the representation of the community in our school.
Capital fund: We just began our campaign to raise funds for our permanent campus that will let us accommodate 350 students in grades pre-K to 12. Our immediate goal is $2 million for the land (to be located soon; it may also be donated), engineering and architectural design, site preparation, and first buildings. The campaign will continue as we expand our grade offerings, with an estimated cost of $10 million for the final campus. Dr. Sangeeth Shanbhag and Prasanna Pai, Dr. Jean-Pierre Reinhold and Natasha Preiss, and Marcus and Iris Chavez, parents of four of our students, have started us on the road with their donations. Thank you! Prasanna Pai is leading the campaign. He is also the new director of First Step, the nonprofit provider of women's and children's health services - a busy man!
If you are a potential donor to the Academy, please consider augmenting the scholarship fund, capital fund, or our general fund. We plan to grow to a full pre-K - 12 school over the years, with your help.
You can donate by shopping.
is a national program in which selected merchants donate a percentage (typically 1% but as much as 16%) of your purchase price to us. It has raised over $220 million for schools and non-profits in the last 11 years. For us to get this benefit, you need to sign up, simply providing your name and your credit card number on a secure Web page (https) - no other information, not even address or CCV. Simply use that card at the participating merchants; there's nothing to carry or remember. There is complete privacy of your information at eScrip, which will not share your information with anyone. The signup link is accessed by clicking here or on the small banner below. Our group name is Las Cruces Academy Inc (no comma, no period); you can also find us by entering our group number, which is 500023723. There are both "bricks-and-mortar" merchants (few in our area - cruise lines, Macy's (El Paso, northern NM), Volvo (Hoy-Fox)) and a larger number of online merchants (click here to see the list. Thanks for considering this valuable program....and please tell your friends who can also support us this way
Target stores also have the Take Charge of Education program to support us. In this case, you would go to Target and get a new Target credit card, specifying our school name or our School ID, 151310. Purchases at Target with this card give us a percentage of the purchase price without changing your cost. Please tell your friends about this program, also.

You may find more good news and items of interest on the link at left, News and Events. Please visit us there, or simply click here. Coming soon are pictures of our successful book fair at Barnes & Noble and other events.

(Site last revised 28 May 2010)