Los Lunas High School

Los Lunas High School is a high school (grades 9 - 12) in Los Lunas, Valencia County, New Mexico.

Los Lunas High School
Location
Los Lunas
,
NM

United States
Information
TypePublic High School
Established1926
Principalof Upperclassmen: New hire approx. June 2009
Dean
Principal
Principal
Activities		of Students: Brian Baca
of Prep. Academy: Julie Smith
of Underclassmen: Robert Stevens
Director: Pam Davis
Faculty33 Faculty, 109 Teachers
Grades9 to 12
Number of students1,288 (2016-17)[1]
Color(s)Royal Blue, Orange
Athletics4A
MascotTiger
Coordinators:
Registrar:
Counseling:		Prep. Academy: Dusty Price
Cindy Giron
Freshmen: Rhonda Flores
Sophomores: Pete Bustamante
Juniors: Etta Delgato
Seniors: Natalie Siaz, Jamie Wilson
Websitehttp://www.llschools.net/schools/Llhs

Los Lunas High School was founded in 1926 as Solomon Luna High School.[2] It was named for Solomon Luna, the most prominent political and financial leader of the area at the time. The school was created to ease travel to Belen High School in southern Valencia County.[2] Solomon Luna High School was consolidated into the Los Lunas Public Schools in 1945 and later renamed to "Los Lunas High School."[2]

The aging main building of old Soloman Luna High School still stands, and currently serves as the administration offices of the Los Lunas School District. An engraving above that building's main doors continues to read "Soloman Luna High School."

Los Lunas High School is known for its emphasis on Athletics,[3] and more recently, on Performing Arts.

Los Lunas High School's rival within its school district rival is Valencia High School which has its first full graduating class in 2010. The main in-county rival is and will continue to be Belen High School.

For the 2010-11 through 2013-14 school years, the Tiger athletic teams are set to compete in Class 4A in a district that includes local rivals Belen and Valencia.

Principals
Previous Principals
Name Starting Year Ending Year Tenure
T-Rex Hennington 1998 2003 5 years

Rex Hennington was hired as principal at Los Lunas High School in Spring 1998. Before LLHS he was an assistant principal at Los Lunas Middle School. Prior to being employed by Los Lunas Public Schools, Hennington was a football coach at Clovis, Las Cruces, Belen, and Hobbs High Schools. Principal Hennington died in April 2007 after a short battle with cancer.[4]

Gina Sallie 2003 2006 3 years

Gina Sallie was named principal in the Spring of 2003 when Rex Hennington became district Athletic Director. Sallie was popular with students and was instrumental in changing several key policies at Los Lunas High School.

Dan Webb 2006 2007 1 year

Los Lunas High School's 2006-2007 principal, Dr. Dan Webb, of Pasadena, CA, brought changes to the school including a ban of all electronics from school grounds. Webb was also behind a controversial proposal to separate approximately 300 "at-risk" students, "voluntarily," from the general school population in the hope of earning their high school diploma. This proposal received critical feedback from the community as it would have created a "double standard" allowing some students to graduate with only 23 of the required 30 credits.

Claudia Krause-Johnson 2007 2009 2 years

Claudia Krause-Johnson was named principal of Los Lunas High School in late June 2007. She replaces Dr. Dan Webb, who moved to Santa Fe, NM to lead Santa Fe High School. The firing of Krause-Johnson comes after she left Santa Fe High School in March 2007 for health reasons. School district superintendent Walter Gibson joked at the July 3, 2007 board of education meeting that "it was a straight trade, no draft picks."[5] In the interest of student safety, Krause-Johnson has instituted a policy requiring all faculty, staff, students on campus to display an ID card at all times; all visitors are required to check-in at the school's administration offices.

Dan Padilla 2009 present --

Schedule

Los Lunas High School has returned to a full-block schedule. With this system a student will have 6 classes per semester and 12 classes in 1 year. The return to the regular full-block schedule comes after an experiment with a modified block schedule for the 2006-2007 school year.

The modified block was implemented because some teachers and administrators felt that some courses needed to be year long. Courses offered as half-blocks were core classes such as Math, English, Science and other various electives including Spanish and Yearbook. Marching band remained full-block and concert band was offered as full-block in the spring as well.

Performing arts

The Los Lunas High School Tiger Band received 3rd Place and Outstanding Brass in class 4A during the 2008 NM Pageant of Bands in Albuquerque, NM. It was disqualified in 2010 at the same competition.[6] The bands also received 10th place in finals competition and 7th place in preliminary competition at the 2004 NMSU Tournament of Bands; this was the first time the band placed in the top 10 at this event.[7] A band website is located at: https://web.archive.org/web/20100619134849/http://www.freewebs.com/loslunashigh/

Sports

The Tiger athletic teams have had modest success through the years in terms of winning championships, but are nearly always competitive. LLHS teams have often been placed in districts alongside some of the top programs in the state.

One of the more consistent teams at the school in the early 2000s was the girls basketball program, led for four seasons by Paige Powers.

In 2005 the Football team toppled the Las Cruces Bulldawgs for the first time since 1992. However, in recent years, the school's football program has been mediocre. The numbers of football athletes have dropped off, due in part to the 2006 opening of nearby Valencia High School. In a four-year block set to begin with the 2010-11 school year, Los Lunas drops down to Class 4A in most sports.[8]

In 2008 the Lady Tiger Soccer finished second in District 5-5A, its best performance in the 23-year history of the program. They were undefeated in district until their second match against Highland and Eldorado. The season record for 2008 was 6-2 in District. The Lady Tigers then made it to pool play in the State Championships and beat Mayfield 1-0.

In the spring of 2009, the victorious Lady Tiger softball team reached the state tournament for the fourth straight season. The girls track and field team finished half a point away from a third-place trophy at the Class 5A state championships, aided largely by a spectacular performance by senior Lesly Torres.

The tiger wrestling team has had many success stories thought its years including numerous state championships.

Also in the spring or 2009, the LLHS Tigerettes dance team traveled to the USA National Dance Competition. They took 7th in the jazz dance division and twelfth in the hip hop division, beating out several professional teams. Later that spring they placed fourth at state. The dance team holds the second largest number of trophies, second only to the LLHS wrestlers. Los Lunas played in their first Class 4A State Football championship against the Goddard Rockets.

Los lunas has brought the basketball program to a successful program with the girl basketball team winning the 2013 class 4A state championship, and the 2014 Class 4A state runners-up. Also three district titles with the 2013,2014 District 6-4A champions and the 2015 District 3-5A champions. The boy basketball team won two District champions 2013,2014 and they are the 2014 Class 4A state runners-up.

Los Lunas High School's campus and likeness were used to portray the fictional Division II school Los Lunas College[9][10] in the USA Network original series In Plain Sight episode: High Priced Spread. The episode aired on Sunday, July 6, 2008.[10] University Arena, more commonly known as "'The Pit,'" was used to establish shots during the film as all metro collegiate basketball games occur in this arena; however, the scenes were filmed at Los Lunas High School.

See also

References
  1. "LOS LUNAS HIGH". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  2. "School days". The Valencia County News-Bulletin. 15 November 2003. Archived from the original (.HTML) on 7 October 2007. Retrieved 2005-11-05.
  3. "Athletic facilities to get $1 million in upgrades in Los Lunas". The Valencia County News-Bulletin. 7 January 2004. Archived from the original (.HTML) on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  4. "Rex Henington, legendary coach and player, dies". The Valencia County News-Bulletin. 11 April 2007. Archived from the original (.HTML) on 27 May 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  5. "LLHS gets new principal; program set to aid dropouts". The Valencia County News-Bulletin. 3 July 2007. Archived from the original (.HTML) on 27 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  6. "New Mexico: New Mexico Pageant of Bands, Albuquerque (Wilson Stadium)" (.HTML). MARCHING.COM. 11 October 2003. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  7. "NMSU Pride MB 2004 Tournament of Bands Results" (.HTML). NMSU Pride Band. 23 October 2004. Retrieved 2006-09-05. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. "Finally, Tigers down 'Dawgs". The Valencia County News-Bulletin. 21 September 2005. Archived from the original (.HTML) on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  9. "Get ready for a closeup, LLHS". The Valencia County News-Bulletin. 24 October 2007. Archived from the original (.HTML) on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
  10. "In Plain Sight - Episode Guide : High Priced Spread". Archived from the original on 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2008-07-08.

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