College & Career HS Celebrates its New Home

The APS magnet school is sharing the new Education Collaborative Building on CNM's main campus with the Native American Community Academy and CNM Teacher Education Programs.

Central New Mexico Community College and Albuquerque Public Schools celebrated a major milestone in their partnership to expand education opportunities that are beneficial for Albuquerque and New Mexico at the grand opening of the new Education Collaborative Building on CNM’s main campus on Thursday, Oct. 10.

The 80,000 square-foot, four-story facility is the new home for the College & Career High School (an APS magnet school), the Native American Community Academy (an APS charter school) and CNM’s Teacher Education and Early Childhood Multicultural Education programs.

The cost of the $35 million facility has been split evenly between CNM and APS. CNM’s $17.5 million came from voter-approved bonds. The $17.5 million from APS came from voter-approved bonds and mil levy.

The College & Career High School (CCHS) allows high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to take CNM dual-credit classes that count for both high school and college credit. While working toward their high school diploma, the students also earn college credits toward a certificate, associate degree or bachelor’s degree. In 2017, CCHS posted the fourth best score in the state among all public schools and the highest score among APS in the New Mexico Public Education Department’s annual school grading report.

CCHS students typically spend half of their day taking APS classes and the other half taking CNM dual-credit classes. Tuition and textbooks are free for students. The school opened with 45 students in 2013. This year, there are 275 CCHS students.

“We are very excited to continue our partnership with CNM. Over the years we’ve collaborated on new learning models that have expanded learning choices for students and dramatically changed the course of thousands of futures,” said APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy. “Of course, better educational outcomes like this wouldn’t be possible without the support of the community and we are very grateful.”

The building is also the new home for 200 Native American Community Academy high school students. The vision of NACA is to create “a thriving and dynamic community where students, educators, families and Native community leaders come together, creating a place for students to grow, become leaders, and prepare to excel in both college and life in general.”

The building, which is also home to CNM’s Teacher Education and Early Childhood Multicultural Education programs, now provides a uniquely collaborative environment and valuable learning opportunities for CNM students preparing to become teachers. CNM students in Teacher Education will now get the opportunity to observe high school teachers in the classroom and the site will be used as a place to complete student teaching requirements for those planning to be high school teachers. CNM students will also benefit from learning about cultural practices specific to Native American students, and indigenous teaching and learning methods used at NACA.

“This new building is a remarkable and very encouraging milestone for the future of education in Albuquerque and New Mexico,” said CNM President Katharine Winograd. “Our strong partnership with APS is helping more high school students participate in higher education at an earlier age. That is so important for students, their families and our community as we all strive to help more students become college graduates and have a good career and a good life.”

The building is located next to CNM’s Student Services Center and the Student Resource Center, providing the high school students easy access to the library, tutoring, academic advisors and many other CNM services. The building includes classrooms, science labs, a student health center, faculty spaces, early childhood development suite and more.

The building is designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification and has 252 roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels, enough to power 15 houses. Almost 90 percent of construction waste (2,300 tons) was recycled or diverted from landfills. The building’s design also reduces indoor water usage by 32 percent, saving 91,205 gallons of potable water per year.

The cost of the $35 million facility has been split evenly between CNM and APS. CNM’s $17.5 million came from voter-approved bonds. The $17.5 million from APS came from voter-approved bonds and mil levy.