AMHEST — An idea that has been floating around the public school district here for decades may finally have moved a step closer to reality — a dual-language immersion program for elementary school students.
At the March 14 School Committee meeting, Superintendent Michael Morris laid out a possible path for implementing Spanish-language immersion classes at one of the town’s three elementary schools. Morris will continue to research the possibility before bringing a formal proposal to the School Committee for a vote this fall.
“In some ways it’s nothing new,” Morris told the Daily Hampshire Gazette, referencing previous explorations of a dual-language program in the district and past recommendations that one be implemented. “The devil is always in the details.”
Morris’ proposal comes as part of a deep-dive look into potential solutions for the enrollment challenges facing the district’s elementary schools. An “enrollment working group” recently presented research to the School Committee on five topics related to those challenges: the socioeconomic balance at the elementary schools, declining enrollment, preschool access, special education programs and dual language immersion.
In response to those reports, Morris has laid out an initial proposal to implement a dual-language program — beginning with one grade level at one school — that could in turn address those enrollment challenges.
“What I’m proposing is a path to explore — I’m not making a formal proposal,” Morris told the School Committee on Wednesday.
Implementing a dual-language program could, for example, stem the tide of students — and with them their education dollars — leaving the district for schools like the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, Morris said. It could provide a way to create socioeconomic balance in the district’s schools without having to redistrict the town, and could free up classroom space at Crocker Farm for more preschool programs.
A dual-language program could also better serve a district with changing demographics, Morris noted.
The percentage of Latino students has more than doubled over the last 20 years, Morris told the School Committee. Hispanic students now account for around one fifth of the district, according to data from the state’s education department. English language learners now make up more than 16 percent of the entire district, and almost half of those students’ first language is Spanish.
What the program will not do, Morris stressed, is address the significant infrastructure challenges at the district’s schools. Those are a separate issue with solutions currently in the works, he said.
“I think it’s an exciting direction,” said School Committee Chairwoman Phoebe Hazzard, who also worked as part of the enrollment working group looking at dual-language possibilities. “It’s a creative and really educationally strong direction to explore around looking creatively at issues that we would like to address.”
Around 15 years ago, a state ballot initiative effectively ended bilingual education for English-language learners in many public schools. But in November, Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a bill overturning that English-only measure, allowing schools to teach academic subjects in a student’s native language and creating a “seal of biliteracy” that can be added to diplomas.
That past rule didn’t completely eliminate dual-language programs, though. Holyoke’s Joseph Metcalf Elementary School has a Spanish-English program that runs through the third grade, and enrollment working group members visited classrooms there to learn more about dual-language instruction.
Other long-standing programs were allowed to continue operating under that recently overturned measure, including at the Cambridge Amigos School, which Morris plans to visit this week. He also has trips planned to visit schools with similar demographics and situations to Amherst, including a trip later this month to Princeton, New Jersey, and Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the fall.
Many of the details for what the program would look like are intentionally lacking as Morris begins the work of looking at those other programs and collecting community feedback.
The questions to be answered are many, including whether to use neighborhood zoning or some other hybrid lottery system to determine who gets into the program, what curriculum would need to be translated and what percentage of the day would be taught in which language.
According to the proposal, the school currently meeting most of Morris’ criteria for the program’s location would be Fort River, where the program could consist of two dual-language classrooms per grade level and another classroom for English-only instruction.
Despite the lack of specifics, there are several non-negotiable points that Morris stressed in his presentation to the School Committee: No student should have to change schools as the result of the program’s creation, nor should they be forced to enroll in the dual-language program.
The program should also be budget-conscious, Morris added, given the financial constraints the district already faces. In other words, it would have to use existing staff to start, and the district would have to be intentional about hirings when vacancies arise, placing an emphasis on bringing more bilingual staff on board.
Currently, the district has as many as five classroom teachers, three special educators and three counselors who are bilingual, as well as other specialist teachers, English-language learner teachers and other staff members, including many paraeducators.
Morris will be updating the School Committee every meeting on his progress researching dual-language programs, will hold two informational meetings at Jones Library for families on April 4, and for Spanish-speaking families and the Special Education Parent Advisory Council that month as well. He has already held an optional staff meeting about the proposals, and said he will continue getting feedback from all stakeholders involved.
“I feel really optimistic,” Morris said, describing the feedback he has already received as informative in shaping his proposal. “I imagine that continuing, and that makes me optimistic, that people are paying attention.”
The district has also been getting technical help and advice from the Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education, which has indicated that Amherst is currently on pace to begin a dual-language program in the fall of 2019 if the town so chooses.
Morris said he hopes to have a more concrete, formal proposal for the School Committee to vote on in mid-October, so as to keep the district on that pace.
The possibility of a dual-language program seems to have generated a large degree of support. A survey conducted by the enrollment working group found “strong interest” in the community for the program’s creation, and all three candidates for the School Committee’s two open seats have voiced strong support for the proposal.
“My sense of the committee and the public comment that we’ve received, and email responses, is that people are really, really excited about this as a possible path,” Hazzard said.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.
