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La Academia Dolores Huerta is a dual language charter middle school (grades 6-8) serving 120 students from within the Las Cruces area. Our students learn in the languages of English and Spanish, where we alternate the instructional language by week. In addition to the core classes of Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies, we currently offer the following elective classes: a) PE; b) Ballet Folklorico; c) Mariachi; d) Conjunto; and e) Art. Our first school year was the 2004-2005 academic year. We completed our renewal charter during the 2008-2009 school year and we are approved by our authorizer, Las Cruces Public Schools (lcps.k12.nm.us).

Vision Statement
La Academia Dolores Huerta holds that the current and growing globalization will increasingly demand that our future leaders in all spheres and arenas possess and apply a knowledge and appreciation of the cultures and languages to which they may be exposed locally and beyond. La Academia Dolores Huerta will encourage student's development of social identity through language, cultural values, and global realities. La Academia Dolores Huerta therefore holds that its enrollment, curriculum, goals and objectives and methodologies provide its students with an education based on dual language and multicultural exposition and applications. The curriculum will be academically rigorous, relevant, and content rich to meet the needs of all students. La Academia Dolores Huerta will serve students in grades 6-8 from the greater Las Cruces area whose population is diverse, lower socioeconomic status, socially impacted and currently underserved

Mission Statement
La Academia Dolores Huerta's mission is to create an environment that enables middle school students to achieve high academic standards and personal growth through: 1) promoting multiculturalism and bilingualism; 2) nurturing diverse cultural awareness and appreciation; 3) recognizing and developing the gifts and skills of each student; 4) providing an education equal to or better than that provided by other public or private schools; 5) promoting nonviolence by emulating the principles and spirit of such leaders as Martin L. King, Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta; 6) encouraging and assisting students and their parents to maximize their involvement in an interfacing relationship with the school's staff and thereby assist them to grow in self-motivation, competency, experiences, independence, knowledge and self-worth.

What is a charter school?
New Mexico Coalition of Charter Schools (www.nmccs.org) defines a charter school as the following: A charter school is a tuition-free public school established by a contract with an authorizer, which in New Mexico is either a local school district or the Public Education Commission, to provide a choice in public education for parents, students and educators. A charter school is independently designed and operated and committed to improving the academic achievement of every student, regardless of personal circumstances. Today, over 14,000 New Mexico students attend one of 82 charter schools across the state.

Who is Dolores Huerta?
Dolores Huerta was born April 10, 1930 in the mining town of Dawson, in northern New Mexico. Her father, Juan Fernandez, was a seasonal farm worker, miner, union activist and later a State Assembly man. Her parents divorced when she was three years old and her mother, Alicia Chavez, relocated the family to California's San Joaquin Valley.

In 1955 Dolores became a founding member of the Stockton Chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO). Dolores founded the Agricultural Workers Association in 1960. Through the CSO Dolores and Cesar Chavez met. CSO battled segregation, police brutality, led voter registration drives, pushed for improved public services in Latino communities throughout the State of California. In 1962, Dolores and Cesar started the National Farm Workers Association, the predecessor to the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) headquartered in Delano.

Dolores worked with Cesar for over thirty years until his death in 1993. Together they founded the Robert Kennedy Medical Plan, The Juan De La Cruz Farm Workers Pension Fund, The Farm Workers Credit Union, the first medical and pension plans and credit union in history for farm workers, worked to end the "captive labor" Bracero Program, and improved working conditions for workers. They did much more - they gave pride and vision to generations of Chicanas/os in the quest for justice and equal opportunity through "La Causa".

In 2002 she received the Puffin Foundation/Nation Institute Award for Creative Citizenship with a $100,000 grant which she utilized to establish her long time dream, the Dolores Huerta Foundation's Organizing Institute.

The Foundation's mission is to focus on community organizing and leadership training in low-income under-represented communities.

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