Garland ISD to expand bilingual classes

6 schools to add courses; reassignments set

GARLAND – The Garland school district will expand its bilingual program in the fall to give more students a chance to attend their neighborhood campuses.

District officials said they would add bilingual classes at six elementary campuses for the 2000-2001 school year. The move could affect more than 200 Spanish-speaking children.

The action follows a 1996 complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice about the district’s busing of Hispanics in bilingual education classes.

Shannon Terry, assistant director for bilingual programs, said the move is part of Garland’s ongoing effort to reduce the number of students who are bused out of their neighborhood schools. Eventually, she said, the Garland Independent School District will probably have bilingual classes at all 42 elementary campuses. At least one bilingual class is offered at 32 schools now.

“The concept of having a neighborhood school is important because it increases parental involvement, be that PTA or whatever parent outreach there is at the campus,” she said.

Under the district’s new plans, about half of the bilingual students at two Garland schools will be split among four other campuses.

Some bilingual students in kindergarten through third grade will be moved from Luna Elementary to Bullock and Bradfield elementaries. This year, Bullock offers a pre-kindergarten bilingual class.

The district also plans to move some kindergarten through third-grade bilingual students from Southgate Elementary to Caldwell and Park Crest elementaries. Caldwell currently has a pre-kindergarten bilingual class.

Also, fifth-grade bilingual classes will be added to Club Hill and Lister elementary schools, which already offer bilingual instruction for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

The district has been criticized in the past for its busing practices. The Garland Hispanic Coalition filed a complaint with the Department of Justice in 1996 saying that Hispanic children were bused more frequently than students in other ethnic groups.

Justice Department officials could not be reached to comment this week. Garland school district officials said they received an initial request for busing data in 1996 and have not heard back from the federal officials.

School board president Steve Hill said bilingual expansion is not a direct result of the 1996 complaint, but the action caught the attention of district officials.

“We are sensitive to the concerns of the members of the minority community who have said the busing falls disproportionately on the backs of minority students,” he said.

School district officials said the expansion of the bilingual program will shorten or eliminate bus rides for some students.

Tony Torres, president of the Garland Hispanic Coalition, said he is pleased with the decision, but he said he would withhold a final judgment.

“It’s a beginning,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. I’m glad that they are at least considering this issue.”

Mr. Torres said that fewer and shorter bus trips will give Hispanic students a better chance to fully participate in their schools. He said most of the bused bilingual students spend 45 to 75 minutes total on a school bus each day.

“They couldn’t ever participate in any extracurricular activities because they had to go on the bus when school was out,” he said. “And their buses got in so late in the morning they couldn’t go to tutoring.”

Mr. Hill said reducing the amount of busing in Garland is difficult because the school district is operating under a 1987 court order prohibiting single-race campuses.

That order requires the district to maintain a balance of students of different races at each school.

Ms. Terry said district officials have met with about 250 families who will be affected by the changes, and she said the reaction has been mostly positive. She said that if some families want their children to continue to be bused to distant schools, that will be taken into account when making campus assignments this spring.

Some parents were concerned about how their children would get to school, Ms. Terry said. Many of the children live within two miles of their neighborhood school, which means they would not be able to ride the bus.

“Some families consider the free bus transportation to be a benefit,” she said.

Staff writer Jeff Mosier can be reached at 972-278-7478 and at [email protected].



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