NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A part of New Mexico that’s never had a middle school is finally seeing one built, and students in the East Mountains will start walking through its doors this fall. “We’ve had families in tears, how happy they are to have this option closer to their home,” East Mountain Executive Director Trey Smith said.
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This August, East Mountain High, now called simply East Mountain, will welcome 6th graders for the first time. Next year, 7th and 8th graders will join the mix. The goal is to bridge that gap so kids can stay in the same education system. “We’ve been a standalone high school for the past 26 years, 9-12, and we realize a lot of our 9th graders are coming from wildly different middle school backgrounds,” Smith said. “So we wanted to close that gap by having a coherent, seamless pathway 6-12.”
For over 20 years, Sandia Park has had an elementary school and a high school, but lacked a middle school for students in grades six through eight. Now, construction has begun for a module building for 6th graders similar to the current buildings, a 27,000 square foot building for 7th and 8th grade students with a multi-purpose room, cafeteria, music studios, and classrooms, as well as a new, larger parking lot…