Centennial teaching staff
CHS is first in New Mexico as of publication
Las Cruces Public Schools is proud to announce that Centennial High School has become the first high school in New Mexico during this school year to earn Cognia’s prestigious “Accredited with Merit” distinction, marking a historic milestone for the school, the district, and the state. CHS is also the first high school in LCPS to complete Cognia’s rigorous accreditation process for the 2025–2026 school year. Arrowhead Park, Las Cruces, Mayfield, Organ Mountain and Rio Grande Preparatory Institute are all currently on track to achieve accreditation as well.
This achievement comes after years of systematic work that began when Centennial opened.
“The processes, procedures and protocols that led to this accreditation actually started in 2012 when our school first opened,” said Principal Jeff Brilliant. “Since then, we have added to them, under each administration, to achieve this goal. I inherited a lot of the great things that those leaders established at this school. It’s about building on that success to get us to this point.”
Centennial’s accreditation effort was led by librarian Vickie Romero, who spearheaded the data gathering process. The school began meeting with Cognia evaluators in late July and August of 2025, holding structured meetings twice a month to complete the required documentation, interviews, and evidence reviews.
Romero said the school’s longstanding culture of evidence-driven decision-making made the work possible.
“It’s easy to find data when your school lives on data — when you base decisions on data every day. We build from our 90-day plans, we refine our systems, and everyone contributed to the process.”
In total, about 15 staff members formed the core leadership team guiding the accreditation work, including department heads, special education staff, bilingual instruction specialist, electives teachers, counselors, and administrative staff.
During the process, Centennial ensured that student and teacher perspectives were authentically represented. Ahead of accreditation, Cognia evaluators interviewed both groups for a full hour — including new teachers and a cross-section of students from diverse demographics.
“I wanted to make sure it was authentic,” Brilliant said. “Our students and staff shared openly about the work happening on our campus, and in addition to earning accreditation status, Cognia will give us recommendations that will help make our school even better moving forward.”
Being recognized as Accredited with Merit means Centennial exceeds Cognia’s performance standards across, leadership capacity, learning capacity and resource capacity.
According to the organization, this distinction is exceptionally rare. As of this announcement, Centennial is the first school in New Mexico to earn accreditation with merit for the 2025–26 cycle. Accreditation remains valid for seven years, with ongoing improvement and monitoring built into the renewal cycle.
“The goal I set for myself, as one of the leaders of this institution, is that we prepare students for whatever comes next — that opportunities are open and available to them,” Brilliant said. “This national recognition supports that. It affirms that our staff is preparing students for their futures.”
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