By Marsha Sutton
What was intended to be a rather minimal way to introduce Spanish to a handful of students has evolved into a maximum headache for the Del Mar Union School District.
The two-pronged Spanish language program, submitted by Del Mar Heights School and approved unanimously by the DMUSD school board on Jan. 23, consists of a Spanish Exploration component that provides limited Spanish exposure for all classes at all grade levels. The second, more controversial, Spanish Discovery element was designed to offer more comprehensive Spanish instruction for the primary grades, beginning this fall with two classes in kindergarten and two classes in first grade.
For Spanish Discovery, the plan is to offer 40 kindergartners one hour of Spanish instruction twice a week, and 40 first-graders 45 minutes of Spanish four days a week.
However, unexpected snags in the program’s enrollment process have stalled plans and sparked conflict within the neighborhoods west of the I-5 freeway.
“As of late, there have been some tremendous challenges that have ripped our community apart,” said DMUSD interim superintendent Janet Bernard, at the district’s May 28 school board meeting.
At the kindergarten level, where most of the controversy exists, Heights principal Wendy Wardlow and her team envisioned four classes – only two of which would participate in the Spanish Discovery program. It was designed to be a district-wide program, with one class of 20 students from the attendance area west of the I-5 freeway and the other class of 20 from Carmel Valley.
Limiting the number of students from west of I-5 to only 20, or one class, was important, school leaders felt, to ensure that the program would not “steal” students away from Del Mar Hills Academy, which shares a common attendance boundary with Del Mar Heights.
After 47 kindergarten students from the Hills/Heights attendance area applied for the 20 seats in the west of I-5 Spanish class, a lottery was held May 16 to fill the slots. The remaining 27, plus another 10 who did not want the Spanish program, will be placed in the two non-Spanish kindergarten classes.
After some intense marketing, the east of I-5 kindergarten Spanish class has attracted the required 20 students. The deadline is June 20, and a lottery for that class will be held June 23 if more than 20 students from Carmel Valley apply. This makes four classes – two Spanish Discovery and two not.
With 77 students applying for 80 seats, the pilot program appeared to be going smoothly, until an unforeseen consequence developed: to date, the Hills has only 32 incoming kindergartners registered. This means two classes, when this year and in previous years the Hills has had three K classes.
Hills parents worry that having only two kindergarten classes will drastically reduce their school’s numbers over time, making it a target for possible closure. A reduction in enrollment also means fewer enrichment teachers, who are assigned to schools in numbers proportional to enrollment.
“The Spanish Discovery program will negatively impact the Hills for at least the next seven years,” said Andrea Sleet, a third- and fourth-grade teacher at Del Mar Hills Academy, articulating the Hills’ main concern.
History
Interest in second language instruction began at Del Mar Heights back in 2001 when the school adopted the Global Village concept. A Spanish language task force was formed, and over the past seven years the idea was presented at numerous strategic planning sessions, discussed at the school’s PTA and site council meetings, and raised in both casual and formal conversations with parents, teachers and community members.
The school’s research over the years has included site visits of other schools in the county that offer foreign language instruction, as well as investigations into the extensive data available on the benefits of exposure to second languages at an early age.
According to Wardlow, the concept was tweaked, modified and tailored in myriad ways to accommodate varying points of view. “It took a year to come up with this model that was acceptable to the teachers,” said Wardlow, whose kindergarten teachers are “protective of the developmental needs of a kindergartner.”
“Most of us don’t realize how hard it is to ask any teacher to try something new,” said school board president Annette Easton, a teacher herself, at the board meeting.
Minimizing the impact on the district’s budget was another central issue in the design of the program.
“There’s the impression that this program will cost the district,” said Bernard, calling this a misconception.
Bernard emphasized that there is no additional cost for teachers as a result of the Spanish program. “We have projected three new teachers [in the district], with or without the Spanish program,” she said.
Instructional materials for the program are projected to cost around $25,000, which Bernard said was being funded entirely by the Heights through grants, private donations, school improvement money and the PTA. “It will impact the Heights itself, not the district’s general fund,” she said
Furthermore, the Heights would still be allocated the same number of enrichment teachers, even if the Spanish program were cancelled, Bernard said.
Although the board report states that the effect of the program on the budget is “unknown at this time,” it’s because “things can come up that you don’t anticipate,” Bernard said. Even so, she expected the impact on the general fund, if any at all, to be negligible.
Despite these reassurances, suspicion remains that there are undisclosed or unanticipated costs that could be significant and could impact programs at other schools.
Another major challenge of the program, according to Wardlow, was ensuring that enrollment in the Spanish program would not affect enrollment at the Heights’ sister school, Del Mar Hills.
Because the Hills and the Heights share a common attendance boundary, sensitivity to this issue was paramount.
In designing the Spanish program, Wardlow “seemed very earnest about balanced enrollment,” said Hills principal Laurie Francis, who emphasized that she and her community are “wholeheartedly behind this Spanish program.”
But rumors over the years of closing one of the two schools should enrollment dip too low has spooked both schools’ parents and staff, who are fiercely protective of their schools as a result.
“Both of our schools have dealt with the angst of possible closure,” Wardlow said.
A positive working relationship between the two schools has degenerated lately to reflect what some describe as a less than healthy competition for students – a conflict that was perhaps inevitable, given the way the boundaries are structured.
But the issue has never been as heated as it is today, with the Heights anticipating four kindergarten classes for the fall and the Hills only two.
Limited numbers of students
“It is important to note that Davis Demographics projected only 100 kindergarten students for 2008-2009 in the Hills/Heights attendance boundary,” reads the board report on the subject. “This constitutes a total of five K sections. Canceling the Spanish Discovery program most likely will not result in an increase of class sections at the Del Mar Hills Academy.”
Furthermore, Rodger Smith, DMUSD’s director of human resources and facilities planning, said recent demographic studies project similar numbers from the Hills/Heights attendance area for at least the next eight years. That means no more than five classes of 20 kindergartners each for the foreseeable future. So with or without the Spanish program, the problem remains.
Both the Hills and the Heights have been able to each have three, and sometimes four, kindergarten classes by attracting students from Carmel Valley, either by choice or because Carmel Valley’s neighborhood schools were overcrowded or not yet built.
But now that the district has eight schools, and neighborhoods are being well-served, the Hills and Heights will have a total of five classes unless efforts can be made to attract more students from the east.
“By and large, people like to be in their neighborhood,” Francis said, which makes it harder and harder to attract Carmel Valley students. “I’m a strong supporter of small schools, but it makes us very vulnerable. We’re dealing with unprecedented territory.”
“There are only so many students to divide between the two schools,” wrote Hills PTA president Janet Pecsar in an email to other Hills parents. “If Del Mar Heights is allowed to implement their Spanish Discovery program and require four sections each of kindergarten and first grade next year, Del Mar Hills will lose one kindergarten class and teacher.” She worries that “this pattern will continue year after year.”
Because the Spanish program gives the Heights four classes and leaves the Hills with two, the Hills would like to have the classes split three and three.
The problem with that, according to Bernard, is that it wasn’t part of the board-approved program back in January. “They would have to create a new model,” she said.
Secondly, Wardlow wants the ability to regroup the kids annually, and to do that she needs two classes each of Spanish and non-Spanish. One Spanish class of Hills/Heights kids can be mixed in subsequent years with the Carmel Valley Spanish class. But having only one non-Spanish class means those kids would stay together every year as they move through the grades.
“They would be tracked all the way through,” Bernard said.
Although she agreed with Wardlow’s position on regrouping, Bernard understood the anxiety at the Hills. “Any time you lose sections, there’s cause for concern,” she said. “There is the perception that this is the beginning of the end.”
Bernard hastened to reassure Hills parents and staff that there are no plans to close the Hills, which she described as a wonderful school.
Easton agreed, saying, “Our entire district appreciates the innovation of the Hills.”
In an impassioned speech before the agenda item was open for public comment, Easton said she “was not comfortable with the Hills being limited to two kindergarten classes forever” … but “cancelling the program is not necessarily going to bring another kindergarten class to the Hills.”
A new proposal
Still hoping to change what’s already been approved by the board, the Hills community has put forth a new proposal that asks the Heights to consider enrolling all kindergarten students in the Spanish Discovery program and limiting kindergarten to three sections.
“There’s more interest in Spanish than there is room,” Francis said. To meet the demand, she said the Heights could “make all three Spanish Discovery classes.”
According to Francis, this ensures the viability of the Hills by giving her school three kindergarten classes also. Since there were 47 kindergartners from the Hills/Heights attendance area who wanted Spanish Discovery, and 27 have been turned away, this proposal gives access to the Spanish program to another class of 20. And it provides Wardlow with the ability to regroup the students every year.
Although the idea is intriguing, Wardlow would like the program as originally proposed to move forward for one year to see how it goes. “I absolutely understand her position,” she said. “[But] we would really like to try the two models. Let’s see how it works. In a sense, we’re doing a research project.”
Asking for patience, Easton said 2008-2009 was a pilot year for the Spanish program. “It’s not a ‘forever’ program,” she said. “They will study different options as they go. Is it the best model? Probably not. But they will have a chance to try this out.”
Eight years ago, when the Hills became the Academy and adopted a new model for the integration of the arts and sciences into core curriculum, “there were a lot of unknowns,” Easton said. “But we gave it time.”
Bernard agreed, saying the Heights needs time to assemble a working team. “We have to wait ... We’ll have a better feel for it once you get your teachers in place.”
Wardlow said she never intended for her Spanish program to close down the Hills. “I never considered this a seven-year sentence,” she said. “I hadn’t looked at it that way before.”
But Wardlow insisted that “two kindergarten classes do not challenge the viability of the school. We need to establish trust, and we need to start having regular conversations.”
Bernard said the Heights plan was developed with “the best interests of the students in mind” and that Wardlow had tried to be thorough and thoughtful about the program.
“Foreign language is deeply, deeply important, and the Heights has been at the forefront of foreign language,” Bernard said at the school board meeting. “They’ve had many discussions over the years about implementing a foreign language program.”
Bernard encouraged other school communities to develop “innovative programs that would enhance the education of our students” and said she expected the school board would welcome such proposals.
Francis said it was important to understand that the Hills is not against a Spanish program – which she said she, her parents and staff fully support. She also was insistent that the problem not be portrayed as a fight between the two schools.
“We have to work together to make change,” Francis said. “I feel confident that it can be worked out.”
Because of the late hour, trustees adjourned the board meeting at 11 p.m. after hearing all public comment, and will reconvene on June 11 at 6:15 p.m. at Del Mar Hills Academy to resume discussion of the Spanish issue and the remaining items on the May 28 agenda.
