Independence High celebrates graduation, credit recovery and gratitude

A rose passed from one graduate to the person who helped her finish captured the spirit of Independence High School’s 2026 graduation: a small campus, a close-knit culture and a room full of people who helped students reach the end of a longer road.

Inside the Cleveland High School Concert Hall on Wednesday, May 27, principal Jessica Sanchez, counselor Jenny Cook and Rio Rancho Public Schools Superintendent Robert “Robby” Dodd helped hand out diplomas and awards to Independence graduates. Violet Bailey delivered the farewell address, and graduates took part in a long-standing tradition of giving roses to the family members, staff and mentors who helped them get to the stage. For a school built around credit recovery and second chances, the ceremony put a public face on a quieter kind of success: students who needed extra time, different pacing or a more flexible setting to earn a diploma.

Independence serves students who benefit from smaller classrooms and direct instruction. The school says it generally enrolls students age 16 and older who bring at least six high school credits, and its program includes flexible schedules, independent studies, on-site day care, pre-natal and parenting programs and credit recovery. Founded in fall 1999 and moved to its current facility in 2007, the school serves grades 11-12 and listed enrollment of 211 students in October 2022.

The May 27 ceremony came as Independence was already under pressure to improve graduation outcomes. In March 2026, the school was preparing for restructuring after missing the state’s 66.67% graduation-rate threshold. Rio Rancho Public Schools officials said Independence posted four-year graduation rates of 50% in 2023, 59% in 2024 and 64% in 2025, while its five-year rates were higher, including 67% in 2023 and 83% in 2024.

That makes the school’s graduation stage part of a larger local argument about what success looks like for Sandoval County families. Independence held a winter graduation in the same concert hall on Jan. 16, 2026, recognizing 30 graduates overall, including 25 students in caps and gowns. In 2021, the school graduated 49 students and was described as a credit-recovery program for students who had fallen behind. The pattern shows a school that serves students whose paths do not always fit the timeline of a larger comprehensive campus.

The district is also investing in that model. On May 29, 2025, Independence broke ground on a new campus off Northern Boulevard NE. The $26 million project is planned at about 50,000 square feet, replacing the 28,000-square-foot building used since 2007 and raising capacity from 175 students to more than 200. Construction was described as beginning in winter 2026, with completion targeted for April 2027.

Rio Rancho Public Schools, created in 1994 and now serving nearly 17,000 students across 21 schools, gave Independence’s graduation added weight. Dr. Stephanie Smith, a Rio Rancho school board member and Independence alumna, attended the ceremony and shook hands with a graduate, a small moment that reflected the school’s long arc from credit recovery to alumni leadership.