Hundreds of parents packed a school gymnasium for a recent school board meeting.

The topic: How should the Creighton Elementary School District interpret the voter-approved measure to boot bilingual education out of most classrooms?

Joshua Rose, who lives in the Madison Elementary School District but sends his second-grader to Machan Elementary School, said his daughter has become fluent in Spanish in just a year and a half.

“I think the key is choice,” he told the board. “You can’t change something that works.”

Speaking in Spanish, parent Miguel Garcia Chavez said he’s worried his kids some day will come to him and say, “Sorry, Dad, we don’t speak Spanish.”

In the end, the board voted to craft a structured English immersion program to help Spanish speakers learn English quickly, as prescribed by the law.

But it also agreed to keep the popular dual language offering as well as create a program that provides supplemental Spanish support.

Parents, some of them wearing headsets to hear the recent board meeting in their native Spanish, will help spell out specifics of the new three-pronged system, a system that allows for parents to pick the approach they want for their children.

“One program is not best for everyone,” said board member Suzanne Schweiger-Nitchals.

At a time when state education officials and lawyers still are figuring out exactly how — and when — the anti-bilingual education measure will play out, districts are redesigning their programs so they are ready for the dramatic shift in how non-English speakers are educated.

Some theorize the law will take hold next fall.

In January, the Glendale Elementary School District set its own guidelines for how a child can qualify for bilingual education, in some cases. Principals may place a student age 10 or older in the program if it is best for the student’s physical and psychological needs.

In the Hispanic-rich central and southern portions of Phoenix, the issue is being dissected, even in those districts waiting for the state to set the rules first.

In the Roosevelt Elementary School District, under a federal agreement to improve services for Spanish speakers, Superintendent Russell Jackson has said federal law supersedes Proposition 203, which was approved in November. And he plans to move forward with the hiring of more bilingual teachers.

The Phoenix Union High School District’s school board late last year agreed that parents may still decide to have their children participate in current language-acquisition services, as part of a waiver system.

“Within the parameters of Proposition 203, students may use their first language for social interactions and as a tool for learning English and other academic subjects,” a board statement reads.

Meanwhile, the Madison Elementary School District has formed a task force and will have a revamped language program in place by the summer.

In addition, committees and subcommittees are analyzing the various aspects of the proposition in the Balsz, Osborn, Phoenix and Isaac elementary school districts.

“We can’t wait for the state. We have to plan for next year,” said Isaac Superintendent Paul Hanley. The school board is slated to devise the district’s program, including a waiver system, in March.

But it’s a crapshoot. If the state comes back with an entirely different interpretation, districts will have wasted a lot of time and effort, he said.



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