Portable locker-room systems are planned at Mayfield, Organ Mountain and Las Cruces High as the district works to provide equal facilities for boys’ and girls’ teams

Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News

LAS CRUCES - Las Cruces Public Schools is planning new portable locker-room and changing facilities at three high schools after district officials said some student-athletes have been left changing in their cars because existing campuses do not provide adequate space.

The projects are planned at Mayfield, Organ Mountain and Las Cruces high schools and are intended to provide boys’ and girls’ athletic teams with more equitable access to changing areas, locker rooms and restrooms.

Steven Rodriguez, LCPS chief of operations, described the projects Thursday during the Board of Education’s Finance Subcommittee meeting while discussing a series of capital budget adjustments.

“So those are going to be the portable systems that Gloria and Brenda are working on for our softball teams, our soccer teams, the wrestling, the girls wrestling team at Cruces High,” Rodriguez said, “all of those different things to make sure that we have equal access for our boys and our girls that don’t have those types of access for them to change so that they’re not having to change in their car.”

What Title IX requires

LCPS describes the projects in its budget documents as “Title IX changing facilities.”

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. In school athletics, federal regulations require equal athletic opportunity regardless of sex, including equivalent benefits and treatment involving locker rooms, practice and competition facilities and other aspects of athletic programs.

The law does not require boys’ and girls’ facilities to be identical, but schools must provide equivalent athletic opportunities and treatment.

Rodriguez said the changing-room issue reflects, in part, how athletic programs have evolved since some LCPS campuses were designed.

“This goes back to our facilities when they were designed and they were built,” Rodriguez said. “We have more programs now with our female athletes and our male athletes that didn’t exist before.”

He said the district needs to ensure athletes have access to changing facilities, restrooms and other spaces as programs expand.

District hopes to finish before spring sports

LCPS officials said work on the portable facilities is underway, with the district hoping to have the projects completed before spring sports begin.

Rodriguez specifically mentioned softball, soccer, baseball, track and girls wrestling while discussing the need for the facilities.

“We need to ensure that they have access to changing facilities, restrooms, all of those things,” Rodriguez said.

The projects appear in two budget adjustment requests included in Thursday’s Finance Subcommittee packet.

One request reallocates $896,802 within the district’s Bond Building fund for bond fees and to reclassify the Title IX changing-facilities projects at the three high schools to the appropriate account type.

A separate $1.9 million reallocation within the district’s Capital Improvements HB-33 fund includes the changing-facilities projects along with a White Sands facilities master plan and digital safety and student threat-detection software.

The documents do not specify how much of either reallocation is attributable specifically to the changing facilities.

Rodriguez said district staff are working to get the projects in place before athletes return for spring competition.

“Our hope is that we can have those projects done before the spring sports start,” he said.

Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.