Source: Carmel Valley News, May 22, 2008.
By Ian S. Port
Assistant Editor
“We are concerned with plans to implement a Spanish program for the benefit of one school … that will undermine the continuing financial viability of existing science, music, art, technology, and physical education programs at every school in the district,” wrote a group of district parents in a letter to the Carmel Valley News/Del Mar Village Voice urging others to come to the May 28 meeting.
The letter was signed by several active parents in the district, including Del Mar Schools Education Foundation President Bob Gans (who said he was concerned about the issue as a parent); Torrey Hills PTA President Mary Taylor; Sycamore Ridge PTA President Nicole Baril; Sage Canyon PTA President Janet Handzel; Del Mar Hills PTA President Janet Pecsar; Ocean Air PTA President Terri Harbison; and two other parents.
Supporters of the Heights Spanish program also sent a slew of letters in support of the program.
“Del Mar Heights School has done an impressive amount of work and research to make this Spanish program,” wrote Del Mar Hills parent Phoebe von Reis. “If the program is implemented now at the Heights, it would be much easier for our other schools to learn from this process and include the second language program at their sites in the future.”
The Heights program, which is available to students across the district for enrollment, would give about 40 kindergarteners and first-graders daily Spanish lessons from teachers with credentials in the subject. All students at the school would get 15 minutes of conversational Spanish lessons through the program.
The Spanish proposal would include the hiring of two teachers with Spanish teaching credentials at a cost to the district of about $71,000 each, plus the cost of curriculum materials, which is estimated at anywhere from $7,000 to $40,000.
Because of the way the district allocates enrichment staff, the Heights would also need another half-time enrichment position allocated to it at a rough cost of $35,500.
Critics of the program say it doesn’t make sense to spend as much as $200,000 on a program during a year when budget cuts already endanger the district’s beloved enrichment curriculum — especially given that they say only 15 students from schools other than the Heights and the Hills have applied for it.
“Even a fraction of these costs would be difficult to justify if this truly were a district-wide program,” wrote parents in the letter.
There is also concern that students entering from east of I-5 could face enrollment caps at their neighborhood schools and be forced to go elsewhere if not enough students enroll in the Spanish program.
But defenders of the Heights proposal say it’s long overdue that the Del Mar district had a serious second-language program for its students.
“The ear is trained so easily at a young age to hear the sounds of any language. Therefore, I eagerly support giving our Del Mar students this second-language acquisition advantage by going forward with this timely program,” wrote Robbie Elliott, who sat on a multi-year committee that helped plan the Heights program. “ As a Task Force member, I visited nine of the many San Diego county schools which already had Spanish language programs in place. I will confess to being surprised at how many schools, both public and private, had already been successfully teaching Spanish (and sometimes other languages) in their schools...most for many years, and with an obvious level of enthusiasm by both students and teachers! Given the abundant research making the case for the widespread benefits of teaching children a second language at as early an age as possible, these visitations and observations left me wondering why the Del Mar Union School District was not at the forefront of teaching a second language.”
The meeting of the Del Mar School Board is set for 5:45 p.m. May 28 at Del Mar Hills Academy.
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