Bilingual Classes May Be Displaced

LORAIN—The school district’s administration will recommend moving a bilingual elementary program from Lakeview Elementary School to Masson Elementary to make room for all-day kindergarten, an official said yesterday.

Parents of students in the bilingual program have received a letter from the district explaining the plans. The letter, written in Spanish, announces a question-answer session to take place at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lakeview, 11th St. and Lakeview Dr.

David Majesky, the district’s director of educational services, said all are welcome to the meeting.

He said the administration needs the school board to change attendance districts of Masson, Washington and Hawthorne-Boone elementary schools for the move to happen.

The relocation would accommodate an all-day kindergarten program the state may fund.

Majesky said that he was not sure how many children would be affected by the move but that “it’s going to be probably in the neighborhood of 250.”

The letter sent to the parents of students in the bilingual program says the children will have the same teachers and will continue to have access to the materials they use at Lakeview. The letter is signed by Majesky and Lakeview Principal Elba Armstrong.

At Lakeview, the classrooms outside the bilingual program are used by a Montessori program. That style of teaching uses hands-on learning tools and encourages students to move at their own pace. Lakeview’s Montessori materials are available to students in the bilingual program, which is not Montessori.

This month, rumors started circulating among parents about the program’s possible move. Some parents criticized the district’s administration for not being forthright about the plans.

School officials, however, responded that it was too early to talk about the district’s intentions because nothing was firm.

Schools Superintendent Nicholas Hutlock said a decision needed to be made by this month, to leave enough time for the transition.

Learning of the possibility of the move, the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs had planned a forum with Hispanic community leaders, parents and school officials to clear up the confusion.

The forum has not been scheduled, but Thursday’s school district meeting does not necessarily erase the need for a commission-sponsored forum, said Annabell Droz-Berrios, who represents Lorain on the commission.

Droz-Berrios said the district was responding to the concerns of parents by giving them a chance to ask questions.

“I see that as a positive thing,” she said.

She said, however, that she hoped school officials would take parents’ comments seriously before taking any action.



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