Parents concerned over dual-language Los Amigos School

Valley Press ^ | October 9, 2003 | DEBRA LEMOINE

[BenLurkin]

Parents of Los Amigos School students are not only concerned about a move to a new campus, but also about problems that have developed in the district's only dual-language immersion program. The Palmdale School District board of trustees received at least 20 minutes' worth of comments Tuesday night when it held a public hearing about a potential permanent campus for the school. The district staff has offered Los Amigos the choice to stay put or move to 67th Street East and Avenue R-8 as its permanent site. The district recently broke ground on a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade campus on Avenue R-8, a site that is being called Granite Hills Elementary School.

Parents are concerned the move may have a detrimental effect on the Los Amgios program, in which students speak and learn English half the day and speak and learn Spanish the other half.

Los Amgios teaches kindergarten through eighth grade, and the district has not worked out the details on where the seventh- and eighth-graders will be taught if its students are moved to the smaller campus.

The four parents who spoke said they were grateful Palmdale offers the opportunity for their children to become fluent in English and Spanish, but the district has not kept the promises made when they placed their children in the program six years ago. Parents were told students could not enter the program after first grade and they would have full-day kindergarten.

The district ended full-day kindergarten for all schools this year, and native Spanish speakers have been allowed to enter the Los Amigos program in the upper grades when other students left.

"It has put my student at a disadvantage," said Los Amigos parent Wendy Bird. "The idea was to treat the languages equally. It hasn't necessarily happened."

There are safeguards in place to make sure native Spanish speakers learn English, but there are none to make sure their native English speakers learn Spanish, parents said.

Losing full-day kindergarten also put their children at a disadvantage because Los Amgios students receive lessons in Spanish for half the day and English the other half.

Marta Decker, who has one child in kindergarten and another in third grade, said she notices the difference in the lessons. She said she believes the curriculum has improved since her elder child entered, but still believes the school needs to offer full-day kindergarten to establish the foundation in both languages.

The parents said they can't decide whether they support the proposal to move Los Amigos until they have all the details.

The decision on whether Los Amigos School will move will be determined by the parents, teachers and administrators of the school, said Dr. Bob Rice, interim superintendent.

"This is not an issue the administration is pushing," Rice said. "If anybody is feeling pressure about it, don't. I think when it got here, everyone realized it was premature."

Principal Geoff Brown said he plans to survey all Los Amigos parents to see what they want to do. The school had an informational meeting Oct. 2 to tell parents about the offer. At that meeting, Brown surveyed parents and found a majority of them were in favor of the move if the school remained a K-8 campus.

By January, Brown hopes to have final approval from parents. The Granite Hills campus will be completed by September 2005.

The district needs to study the feasibility of adding seventh- and eighth-graders on a campus designed as an elementary school. The district may need to place portable classrooms at the 10-acre school, which would eat up grass fields or asphalt basketball courts.

The district also could split the seventh- and eighth-graders to a junior high campus, a move many parents oppose.

"I'm looking at a fifth-grader who will be in the seventh grade when the move takes place, Bird said. "It's very timely for me."

Roger Gallizzi, the district's assistant superintendent of personnel, who was director of bilingual education when he founded Los Amigos, confirmed parents were promised full-day kindergarten, a school that went to eighth grade and that students could not enter the program midstream.

"Clearly there are some facilities issues," Gallizzi said. "I do not believe that facilities issues should drive program issues like Los Amigos."

Gallizzi recommended the proposal to move Los Amigos be heard by the district's facilities and program committees.

Trustee Sheldon Epstein also asked for a report on the parents' concerns.

[BenLurkin]

students speak and learn English half the day and speak and learn Spanish the other half.

How can we put a stop to this, ARNOLD?

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[jimkress]

I thought this non-english crap in schools was illegal in California. Didn't the voters pass a referendum to stop this nonsense?

[BenLurkin]

Thought so too, FRiend. Will Arnie give a rip?

[CyberAnt]

I thought CA got rid of bilingual education ..??

[Pro-Bush]

Diversity rules!

[MadMoo]

The State's Constitution states that English is the official language of the State. It has been proven that ESL is a dismal failure. If they want to teach Spanish to K-6 students they should get parents permission and then teach that language after regular school hours. No kid in American should have his English proficiency destroyed by teaching children English at a 50 percent effort.

[marron]

As an experimental program, as a voluntary program, I have no problem with it in theory. I do worry about it in practice. I would worry about accountability, that the school would have to prove that the kids were being taught to be fully conversant in both languages. The article states that the school was failing in its efforts to teach Spanish to non-native speakers.

I would also worry about the level of education in the courses taught in Spanish, if the course work was being presented adequately, or if the material was dumbed down in order to make it easier for the non-native speakers.

This could work if the teachers were talented and well motivated, and if the students were likewise well motivated. But if they are the general run of government teachers, and the general run of students, it could be a disaster.

I would like to know more about it.