Public newsletter and report of the Las Cruces Academy April, 2025
Issued April 15, 2025.
Updated January 30, 2026 to reflect major changes, particularly that on August 6, 2025 we purchased the building that we had leased for 13 years.
We are the Las Cruces Academy, the area’s private, secular school known for its strong academics. We’re all in on the 16th year of classes with very diverse students, several added teachers, an expanded Board of Trustees, many accomplishments, and a venture to take us up a big step, buying the fine Preston building we’ve leased for 12 years! → Accomplished on August 6, 2025
Let us give you a snapshot of the LCA today. Please also see our public face, our website at lascrucesacademy.org for our mission, vision, news, and operations.
Our 42 students (now 50 in AY 2025-26) in early K through 8th grade come from families of the US and 9 other nations on 4 continents. We’re truly international. We value them all for their unique blends of talents and we work to meet each student’s needs, academic and social. We just gave the Iowa Assessments, their only national testing – only once yearly and with no teaching to the test; we march to our own academic plan. We analyze the results to see how well we’re teaching. Last year’s results were as strong as usual. On average students ranked in the 86th percentile; over 1/3 ranked in the 98th or 99th percentile. They gained an average of 1.8 academic grades per year spent with us. We don’t take credit for their national talent but work to develop it. Outside of classes they show talent in music, dance, math, science, PE, and having fun.
They work hard but have fun. We’ll highlight more student activities below; here’s a preview – our most recent Halloween party, planned by the older students for the younger one… well, all of them, and PE/ lunchtime games such as kickball.
We’re proud of our alumni and alumnae from our formative years. They’re now in colleges to take note of – Caltech, NYU, Rice, UMass, UNM, NMSU. A number of them visited us, taking joy in remembering their days with us. 
This school year we have three new teachers.
Beloved math and grades 1&2 teacher Arielle Lane had to move to Texas for personal reasons. LCA parent Shanta Padhi stepped in. She’s a recent molecular biology master’s degree earner. Long-time Spanish teacher Yolanda Guevara is retiring after many years with us. LCA parent Todd Sibley took over the upper-level Spanish classes with an exciting approach mixing conversation, skits, and writing. Co-founder, financial planner, publicist, and Board Chair Vince Gutschick took off from middle school science this year, handing it to LCA parent Brigit O’Donnell. Brigit is also a businesswoman and dietitian. (Changes in AY 2025-26: Spanish teacher Maida Realivazques hired to take over from retiring long-time teacher Yolanda Guevara. Science teacher Brigit O’Donnell accepted a full-time external position and passed teaching to Head of School Lou Ellen Kay.)
Our two volunteers and four other paid teachers have been with us for the long term.
Of course, founder and Head of School Lou Ellen Kay (PhD, Biology) just can’t stop. Volunteering her time teaching as well as being Head of School, she teaches science at 3 levels as well as math, cursive writing, and life skills. She co-teaches math across all levels.
Elizabeth Brasher started with us in 2013. She covers English, writing, social studies, music (tone chimes!), and PE. All the teachers developed elective courses for students in grades 3-8 to choose each quarter. Students pursued playwriting, computer programming, journalism, psychology, gardening, and seven other areas. Katie Kuechmann joined us in 2021; she carries on the work in early kindergarten through grades 1&2, along with a series of elective classes and the yearbook preparation. Yulin Zhang continues 11 years of dynamic teaching of Mandarin Chinese that even has students speaking Chinese in the corridors.
This year we’ll be saying a fond farewell wishes for a happy retirement to Yolanda Guevara. Yolanda began with us on the first day of school in 2009. She taught Spanish for two years, did a brief retirement, and came back in 2019 for 6 more years!
Vince Gutschick, co-founder, Board Chair, financial and IT officer taught science and technology up through last year. He now teaches elective courses in programming, world culture, and rocketry.
Our Board of Trustees expanded this year as two parents of past LCA students joined. Steve Pate-Morales is from NMSU Physics and has long provided advice and aid. His son is in computer science at UMass. Jessica Houston is an engineering dean. She’s co-led the after-school engineering and Logo clubs for years. She and her husband Kevin of NMSU Biochemistry also provide financial support. Their sons prosper in high school and college. Long-term Board members Vince and David Gutschick focus on financial planning, IT, and publicity. Paul Deason covers broad areas of advice with a business perspective. Teacher Elizabeth Brasher prepares us for the long term, both on the Board and as working into being the Head of School. More recent member Sue Salamanca-Riba, retired from NMSU Math, increasingly works on the school’s finances.
All of us on the Board are deeply engaged in the complex but doable plans to buy the building we’ve been leasing since 2012. That’s our fine home, the Preston building, the former Preston Contemporary Art Center built in 2008. → Accomplished August 6, 2025. We used $500K in funds and a commercial loan from WaFd Bank in Las Cruces.
Owners Tinsley and Anita Preston have been wonderful landlords. They’ve been proactive in keeping the building in top shape, while giving us good terms on rent. They want their investment converted to funds for their children. We had to advance our plans for purchasing building! We did detailed budgets for operations plus servicing a mortgage. We found three local banks willing to offer supportable mortgages. The Prestons’ lawyer drafted a most equable purchase agreement. We reviewed it, as did LCA parent and lawyer Chris Cardenas. The last details are in the works! → Closing was done through Southwestern Abstract & Title Company in Las Cruces.
Donors and volunteers help us thrive. Parents help us in the classroom and after school, year over year. This year, among others, many joined in eagerly. Jiaxin Zhu and Hanyu Xu read to students. Jason Begin, Wei Tang, Runwei Li, Frank Holguin, Kanako Fujita, Charlotte Gard & Mario Di Carlo helped run the after-school clubs in engineering, Legos, math, handball, and board games. Lou Ellen and Vince have volunteered all their services since 2007. Reaching back in time, we thank over 100 volunteers who helped us find our leased spaces, build out our facilities (bookcases, walls, IT), clean, paint, write publicity, teach computer programming, consult with us on development, shelve and catalog books, help with fundraising events, even move so many items from our first home to the Preston building.
Many others have donated funds that fill out the finances. As most other private schools, most of our operating funds come from tuition. Those final percentages as direct donations of cash are critical in keeping us going and adding programs. This year LCA parents and grandparents from 13 families donated $14,000. Friends of the school, the Board, and corporations added more. We thank as well the many donors who gave us teaching supplies and equipment, goodies for celebrations, and more. In the new fiscal year starting 1 July 2025 donors have contributed another $12,690.
If our story moves you to help us grow, there are several ways. Perhaps the most impact you can have is sharing our story widely, especially to recruit new students to the Academy. There is room for students in a number of grades, particularly 3-8. Every tuition helps. Every student who grows with us lifts us all.
Activities at the school to celebrate
The school is set up to engage and stimulate the students. Classes are small, 3-15 students. Student schedules fit the level of each student. Singapore math lessons are self-paced, with help available at all times. Each student in grades 3-8 has a daily class in his or her chosen elective. Learning every day in English, Chinese, and Spanish keeps students’ minds growing. Students created art and performed for Chinese New Year.
Our teachers create their own curricula that students find engaging. Lou Ellen’s courses in life skills – manners, finance…- and cursive writing help students in and out of school. Reading is a core activity, in silent reading classes, Art figures into classes of young students, in the language classes, and in elective classes. English classes, and book challenges – the 3rd– through 8th-graders have read over 1,200 books this year, breaking their record from last year. Younger students are joining the quest.
Books line bookcases everywhere, inviting readers at will. Science resources cover all topics on two big wall areas. Our neighborhood’s plants and animals provide real-life experiences in botany and zoology.
We welcome visitors – this year a roping star kept students enthralled.
Codes Enforcement people brought in friendly dogs; two alumnae now in college visited. Students themselves contributed activities.
There’s more every day. Some students learned embroidery. Parents came in to read to classes. Every day there are after-school clubs in math, board games, engineering, handball, sports, theater. The theater club practices all year to present a play.
Students ran a toy drive for el Jardin de Los Niños.
They sang Christmas carols in the neighborhood. Older students organized parties for Halloween and Valentine’s Day. There’s more to see at Instagram.com/lascrucesacademy.
Two breaks and lunch keep students refreshed. Every semester all the students take part in the end-of-term performances, singing and often acting; they gain confidence in public performance.
Students spontaneously write plays to share with the others. The majority of older students play the tone chimes masterfully and with joy; the perform each semester and sometimes give in-school concerts.
The second-semester end-of-term performance took place on May 10, 2025 to a record audience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG2M2Rj85hM
We have parties for birthdays and for various accomplishments.
Official stuff
There’s the boilerplate legal and financial stuff. There’s also our mission and vision that keep us going and growing. These are on our website. Here is a blend of these with a short history.
The Las Cruces Academy grew from the vision of our founder, teacher, and head of school, Lou Ellen Kay. Early 2007 found her as a mother and a PhD scientist with a long, varied, often challenging, and often rewarding career. She thoroughly enjoyed teaching. She also found herself terrified at the problems facing the world. She asked herself, What is the most important thing I could do with the rest of my life? She decided to start a school. She’d engage young people with talent and motivation who so often did not fit in the other schools. We can give them a deep education and the ability to solve some of those world problems. We provide academic challenge, individual attention, and a nurturing environment. Students are taught according to ability, not age or class. We foster an ethic of working hard, working with joy, and working respectfully with their colleagues, friends, and neighbors.
Lou Ellen and Vince retired early from NMSU to plan, incorporate, and find rental property to house the school. With 2 years of help from David and then many friends they had a good place in the Downtown Mall. They found teachers and convinced families to place 13 students in grades K-4 with us, opening on August 15, 2009. The Academy grew in enrollment and programs. In August, 2012 we moved, leasing the current fine building then known as the Preston Contemporary Art Center. We’ve had the joy and satisfaction of having over 100 students with us for various times, dealing as well with their challenges and ours. We say the same for the teachers, ranging from problematic to spectacular over the years.
Lou Ellen was destined to be a botanist and a teacher. She grew up on a small farm near Greeley, Colorado. She pursued a career from undergraduate days at Colorado State University. There, her mentor, Bill Klein, inspiring her with innovative teaching. She saw how a high-energy, well-educated teacher full of ideas could make a difference. She then pursued a PhD at the City University of New York. Many adventures followed, including marriage and tours of Mexico’s ancient ruins in a VW bus for her husband’s work. She and Vince met by chance later in Los Alamos at the national lab. They merged their lives there and onward to NMSU. They shared not only science but also travel to 40 countries that continues to inform the world view they share with the students. They lived for 6 months in Canberra, Australia, again for 6 months in Palo Alto, CA, and a year in Arlington, VA.
Vince grew up in the working class Chicago suburb of Berwyn. He gravitated to science and technology, deciding at age 8 to become a chemist. That fulfilled the broken dream of his father, a great student but orphaned and out to work after high school. Vince’s career took him through local parochial school, a Benedictine high school, Notre Dame for a B.S. in chemistry in 3 years, and a PhD in chemistry at Caltech. His career peregrinations at Berkeley and Yale led him to Los Alamos, where he met Lou Ellen. Vince morphed his career from chemical physics to biology
We’ve been a corporation since our founding in March, 2007. Since then we have also been a (501)(c)(3) nonprofit, an educational charity. Our all-volunteer Board has legal and financial responsibility. We updated and filed our Articles of Incorporation and By-laws in April, 2023. The Board hires the Head of School – Lou Ellen, to date – as its sole employee. She has full executive authority over all regular operations; capital investments such as buying the building are the Board’s work. We pay our teachers well and without fail. We pay all the usual payroll taxes. A sign of our vibrancy is that last May we became a biweekly depositor for the federal 941 tax as it exceeded $5k per month. We’re growing in what we provide to students and we plan our growth meticulously. We hold accounts at the FirstLight Federal Credit Union, Southwest Heritage Bank, Chase Manhattan credit cards, and an escrow account at Edward Jones. All this will be rearranged as we move to a mortgage with one of two local banks! Vince keeps our financial records, our books, with annual oversight by Board Treasurer Pritish Chamania. Fristoe & Co., PA, does our accounting and prepares our annual federal form 990 tax return. We are fully insured for liability, Educator’s Professional, property, and workmen’s compensation. We’re in compliance with all regulations – fire codes, labor regulations, town and county regulations, and reporting to taxation agencies and the Secretary of State. We hold business license 0493 with the Town of Mesilla.
Finances and operations – last fiscal year to 30 June, updated to 26 August 2025
In brief,
- We are financially stable. Our balance sheet and our profit & loss statements show us nearly neutral this past fiscal year, 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2025. We’ll have these posted on our website, along with our federal form 990 (nonprofit organization tax return).
- Our long-term trend remains growth that will support our transition to sustainable administration as Lou Ellen and Vince slowly age out. We have to replace their unpaid volunteer labor with paid administration. This will happen with growth in student enrollment and the concomitant tuition income. Grants and other donations will continue to be important parts of the plan.
- On August 6th this year we used accumulated savings as the down payment of $500K to buy the beautiful Preston building we’ve been leasing. We have a permanent home that suits all of us well – students, parents, faculty, Board. This purchase was an adventure that came a bit earlier than anticipated. Our wonderful landlords, Tinsley and Anita Preston, told us in November that they wanted to get their investment out of the building and give it to their children. We reviewed our finances for the n-th time and we went for it. It was very complicated but it worked. We have a mortgage for $700K with WaFd Bank in town.
- Most things work as usual after the purchase of the building.
- Our occupancy cost is about the same – mortgage payments lower than rent but storing up $20K per year in anticipation of building maintenance costs brings it level.
- Insurance is holding level also, even as we switch from paying the Preston’s building insurance as part of the standard lease to having obtained our own coverage.
- We’re continuing to offer partial scholarships at a level ($22K) that we can afford while growing for long-term sustainability.
- Donations from LCA parents and relatives, friends, the Board, and businesses continue to bring in about $20K annually.
- Our all-volunteer Board of Directors is stable in membership and has been active, particularly during the complex work of buying the building.
- A few things changed, if not radically.
- We raised our teacher salaries in April to be completely competitive – not that we lose our devoted teachers to the other schools! That underlies the lowered net growth this past fiscal year. Our faculty have a long history of staying with us in the long term. This past year there were a few changes. Two part-time faculty leave, one by retiring and the other by getting a full-time job. We have a new 0.6-time teacher of Spanish and of grades 1&2, Barbara Martinez-Griego.
- We received a $35K grant from the M.E.A.D. Foundation in Napa, CA on July 19th. We’re leveraging it with grant proposals to match these funds.
- We have two new members of the Board of Trustees. Stephen Pate-Morales and Jessica P. Houston are both parents of former students. Jessica continues to help run the engineering and Lego after-school clubs. She and her husband also donate to the LCA every year.