By ROCHELLE CARTER Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fair Oaks Elementary School Principal Pete Robertson knew how to express his gratitude for the luncheon the school's Mexican parents provided this week for National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Robertson spent 16 days this summer in Apizaco, Mexico, in a cram session of language and culture to help him interact with his south Cobb school's growing Hispanic population -- 62 percent of his school's 690 kids and growing.
"I was able to speak to the general audience," said Robertson, who was one of 19 Cobb educators to take the trip. "Last year I just waved."
With the Hispanic population growing fast in Georgia, Robertson said more educators will have to take similar steps if they want to work effectively with the new students and their families.
New census data show that children ages 4 and under make up the fastest growing age group among Georgia's Hispanics.
From 2000 to 2002, the number of Hispanic youngsters in that age range grew 36.5 percent in Atlanta's 28-county metro area. That's an increase of 10,774 children in two years.
By comparison, the number of non-Hispanic children 4 and under grew by just 6.2 percent over those two years. The total Hispanic population grew by 22.8 percent in the metro area during that period.
This influx of Hispanic students will drive an already growing need for more translators, bilingual teachers and English for Speakers of Other Languages programs in the region's public schools, officials said Wednesday. It will also continue to push educators to re-examine how they teach.
The oldest children in the census figures started kindergarten this year.
Robertson sees their younger siblings when they come to parent-teacher conferences or wait at the bus stop with their parents.
"You can see there is a wave of children in two or three years waiting to come into the kindergarten program," Robertson said.
Maria Montalvo, coordinator of the English for Speakers of Other Languages program in Fulton County Schools, said the population has grown so much that only a couple of schools in the county don't have ESOL programs. She coordinates 168 ESOL teachers to work with a largely native Spanish-speaking population. The Fulton school system hired interpreters 500 times this year for events such as parent-teacher conferences, compared with 36 times four years ago, she said.
"We now translate everything [that is sent home to parents] into four languages," Montalvo said.
Coweta County's population of Hispanic infants through 4-year-olds grew 45.2 percent from 2000 to 2002, the largest leap in Atlanta's close-in suburban counties. The number of Hispanic students enrolled in Coweta more than doubled from 226 in March 2000 to 589 in March 2003, according to the Georgia Department of Education. The school system's overall population grew by 2,084 in the same period to 18,310.
The county has eight ESOL teachers who work with 140 students, most of them Hispanic, said Susan Wareham, Coweta County Schools' director of preschool and ESOL programs. But 21 teachers have earned an ESOL endorsement on their teaching certificate in response to the system's changing population.
"I'm not worried right now because I know we could staff our program as it gets larger," Wareham said.
Greg Bautista, president of the Hispanic Committee of Gainesville/Hall County, said the public schools are trying hard to work with the state's growing Hispanic population. But he fears that other Georgians will see Hispanics as a group that's sucking resources from the schools.
"I think we have the opportunity to really be proactive," Bautista said. "Reaching out to this population doesn't have to mean reinventing the wheel and spending a lot of money. We're early enough in the growth . . . to be able to build the infrastructure in Georgia schools to be able to respond to this growing population effectively. "
Why are they REALLY being allowed to invade this nation, without even a play-like attempt of enforcing laws against these illegals?????
Well, wud-do-ya-know? Ole Calif finally ran out of those menial jobs no one else will do.
We've been warning you open-borders types for years and you didn't listen. Well, here they come........................
Gee, can't imagine why there are no more good jobs here in Kalifornia. Just because the state legislature chased away virtually every manufacturer from the state, made the taxpayer pay for education and health care for illegals, destroyed workers' compensation, and gave all the illegals drivers licenses and left us all 40 billion in the red-
I can't imagine why.......
How can that be when most of them get their drivers licences in North Carolina?