With great sadness, we announce that New Mexico teacher Sylvia Garcia succumbed to coronavirus on Nov. 29, 2020. Photo credit: Las Cruces Sun News

With great sadness, we announce that the coronavirus has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator. Sylvia Garcia, a longtime teacher within New Mexico’s Las Cruces Public School District, passed away on November 29, 2020, after battling COVID-19. She was 60 years old.

Sylvia inaugurated her career in education in 1991. Most of her career was spent at schools where a large percentage of students were considered high risk. Over the three decades of her professional life, Sylvia taught at Sunrise Elementary, Hermosa Heights Elementary, and Valley View Elementary.  In 2019, she accepted a position at Lynn Community Middle School, where she taught math and reading intervention to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. In addition to her responsibilities in the classroom, Sylvia served in several leadership positions within the teachers’ union NEA Las Cruces.

Sylvia’s colleagues remember that she worked diligently on behalf of her students. “She was a unique teacher whose reach went beyond the classroom. She invested in the lives of her students and her colleagues and she made students feel like they were her own family,” recalled Lynn Middle School Principal Brenda Ballard. “During our remote learning time, she would find ways to engage students in something personal.  She knew details about students few others did,” Ballard continued.

To read more about this wonderful educator, see this link to the Las Cruces Sun News.