The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board slapped a Band-Aid on the questions surrounding bilingual education when it unanimously voted Tuesday night to temporarily expand its dual-language immersion program.
The vote followed a review of the district’s bilingual education options, prompted by public outcry at the Feb. 3 board meeting. At that meeting, Washington Elementary School parents protested the bilingual education committee’s recommendation to make the school the only site for the Two-Way Immersion program (TWI). The board then asked administrators to examine other choices.
The administration favored an option that would increase the number of district-wide TWI classrooms without displacing general education students from Washington.
“This district is large enough and diverse enough to house a language academy,” board member Mary Rita Luecke said. “I don’t think we should displace current students. Next year we (will) continue the program at Washington with a temporary expansion at another site.”
Currently, two groups of students participate in the TWI program — one group at Washington, 914 Ashland Ave., and another at Orrington Elementary School, 2636 Orrington Ave.
The TWI program splits classrooms equally between English- and Spanish-speaking students, and students are instructed in both languages. In kindergarten, the emphasis is on Spanish, but by fourth grade, time is split equally between Spanish and English.
Under the expansion plan, all of the TWI students will attend classes at Washington. Two additional kindergarten TWI classes will then be created at another district school.
According to Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy, the second site probably will be Dawes Elementary School, 440 Dodge Ave., because “it is the logical place given the space.”
Many of the 29 community members who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting agreed with the administration.
“It’s the least disruptive option,” Evanston resident Keith Banks said. “The voice of the community has spoken. We support TWI, but we can effectively have TWI and general education classes coexist. No school wants to displace students.”
The temporary plan won’t displace anybody and will serve all incoming Limited English Proficient students, said Christina Honos, District 65 bilingual specialist.
But the plan will only affect the next school year.
“We have only two more meetings of this board,” board member Bob Eder said. “This is an important enough issue so that the new board will have to weigh in on (it).”
In response to an earlier barrage of protest from the Washington community, the board also voted 5 to 2 to permanently exclude Washington from any future plans to make it a single site for TWI.
“I would like us to commit to a two-school model not just for next year but here on after,” board member Greg Klaiber said.
But some parents are still concerned about how a permanent TWI program would affect general education classes.
Arlene Haas, the parent of a Dewey Elementary School student, said the issue was new to her community. She said the board needed to specify what a permanent program would involve before a meaningful debate could be possible.
“TWI is a wonderful program,” board member Betsy Sagan said. “We should be able to have conversations that are not divisive. We have to ‘sell’ the program to the school communities.”
