Rogers Large response delays offering Spanish classes

School District must find more teachers, materials

ROGERS — So many parents want their children to take after-school Spanish classes that the Rogers School District needs to find more teachers and more books. About 500 parents said in a survey they would be interested in paying tuition and providing transportation for their children to take classes, said Louise Standridge, assistant superintendent for elementary education. “I was expecting about 50,” she said. The classes were to start next week. Now, it may be next semester before the 10-week course can be offered, she said.

Standridge said the district initially thought schools would have to enroll at least 10 students to offer a program. That was clearly an underestimate, she said. Interest was districtwide. The district started looking at offering the classes at the request of Rogers resident Tommy Rogers. He told the School Board in June that learning Spanish would help students compete in the job market and communicate with their neighbors. Rogers hired a tutor to teach his granddaughter, Maya, the language. But he wanted all students to have the opportunity at school. Maya is a student at Bonnie Grimes Elementary in Rogers. That school had the highest interest level. About 90 parents at Grimes indicated on the survey that they’d like their children to take Spanish after school. Even the district’s smallest school, Garfield Elementary, had 19 interested parents. “The kids are excited about it,” said Garfield Principal Linda Meier. Meier sent out letters to parents Tuesday to let them know that the program is on hold because of the big response.

Garfield is among those schools that have located a tutor. Not every principal could find one and some may need several, depending on the number of students. Meier found a bilingual student from Northwest Arkansas Community College. Since the classes would be taught outside the school day, bilingual non-educators can teach. The district has debated costs. It was decided that $ 6 a week for two hours of instruction should cover teacher and materials costs, Standridge said. That was with minimal students, however.

Time and money constraints have kept the region’s school districts from offering Spanish at the elementary level, even though many educators agree young students grasp foreign languages faster. All Washington and Benton county districts offer Spanish in high school. Westwood Elementary in Springdale is the exception in Northwest Arkansas. The school started this year offering Spanish as a class during the school day. The district hired a Spanish teacher through a CommunityCare Foundation Inc. grant. Last year, Westwood offered Spanish classes after school after 99 percent of parents said they’d be in favor of them. Seven people volunteered to teach and about 100 students took part in the half-hour classes twice a week. A follow-up questionnaire indicated 98 percent of parents wanted Spanish offered during the day. Laura Villegas, Westwood’s new Spanish teacher, said the students who took the after-school classes retained over the summer much of what they had learned. This year, the school wanted to reach out to all students, she said. Villegas, certified in Spanish and English as a Second Language, previously taught Spanish at Smackover to students in seventh through 12th grades. When she heard about the opportunity in Springdale to teach young students, she didn’t hesitate. “I’ve been wanting to do this so long,” she said. “Once you go through puberty, you’ve lost a lot as far as learning a foreign language goes.” Villegas said she’s teaching kindergarten through third grade 30 minutes once a week and fourth- and fifth-graders 45 minutes. “They love it. They hug me,” she said. The first word they learned was hello — or “Hola.” “Now I have to say ‘hola’ 5,000 times a day,” she joked.



Comments are closed.