2001-2002An SST about 2 particular children makes then-ELL director Emma Lerewdecide, top-down and unilaterally, to create a K/1 bilingual class atBidwell in the next year.
2002-2003 1st-year teacher Celina Kanat is hired to teach the class.1
st
graders come from English kindergarten. She leaves atend of year to teach a non-combo class elsewhere in Hayward. Shelater left teaching.
2003-2004A new teacher, Mr. Bess, hired 2 weeks before the start of school. Atend of year, he suggests in a power-point presentation that parentstransfer their children to other Hayward schools with bilingual 2
nd
grade. Only one family does this.
2004-2005Mr. Bess' 2
nd
year in the assignment. End-of-yeardiscussions with Emma Lerew for a solution to the problem give noresults. At any rate, Dr. Lerew retires in May 2005, expressing noresponsibility for the class in her written communication.
2005-2006Mr. Bess' 3
rd
year. Mr. Bess holds end-of-year discussionswith Letty Salinas, new ELL director, and Mr. Grasty, principal. Mr.Bess presents significant data on children's reading progress inEnglish. Ms. Salinas decides to expand the program to a full K classand a 1
st
grade/ 2
nd
grade combination class.Unfortunately, Mr. Grasty gets word at the end of the year that thestatus quo will continue.
2006-2007Mr. Bess' 4
th
year in the K/1
st
combinationbilingual classroom. Again, at the end of the year, it is decided tohave a full K class and a 1
st
/2
nd
split. Thistime it works. Over the summer, Mr. Bess attends the interview of theincoming teacher, Melynda Esquivel.
2007-2008Mr. Bess' 1
st
year of teaching only one grade,Kindergarten. Ms. Esquivel, an excellent beginning teacher, teaches anearly full class of 1
st
graders and a very small numberof 2
nd
graders, 2 or 3 children, too few to be a reallyviable educational situation. At the end of the year, Ms. Esquivel,like Mr. Bess before her, suggests to her exiting 1
st
graders that they transfer to a Hayward school with a viablebilingual program, or to an English-only 2
nd
grade classat Treeview Elementary. All take her advice and transfer to SEIclasses, but 2 students are told by Mr. Grasty that they cannottransfer to another school when they try to just before the newschool year. Thus, Ms. Esquivel's class stays a combo class, despitehaving a full class of Kindergartners to fill it.
2008-2009Mr. Bess continues teaching Kindergarten bilingual. Ms. Esquivel isagain forced to teach a split-grade class, again with only 2, orsometimes 3, 2
nd
grade students, too few to make the 2
nd
grade part of the class really viable. Ms. Esquivel quits in Octoberdue to medical issues. The class has daily substitutes who do notspeak Spanish for several weeks, then a long-term substitute whospeaks some Spanish for about a month. Eventually, a Spanish-speakingteacher is hired. At the end of the year, Mr. Bess distributesinformation to parents at Open House about the history and future ofthe bilingual program. A meeting is scheduled with Ms. Salinas andthe parents of the students in the bilingual class, but she fails toshow up. Mr. Bess and the parents take the issue to the school's ELACcouncil. Ms. Salinas comes to ELAC, but presents only information ofthe types of programs in Hayward schools. The decision is made toregress to a K/1 split and no 2
nd
grade at all, causingMr. Bess to resign from the position: 2nd June, 2009
DearMr. Grasty,
DearMs. Salinas,
Ifirmly decline to accept the bilingual kindergarten/ first gradeposition at Bidwell Elementary for next school year.
For7 years, we have had a bilingual program here. For 5 years, itconsisted only of a Kindergarten/1
st
grade split-gradeclass. Anyone with the slightest insight into the bases of bilingualeducation should know that only 2 years of bilingual education isgenerally not as effective as no bilingual education at all.
For4 of those 5 years, it was I who was saddled with K/1 bilingualassignment. I was able to carry out my task effectively because ofstaggered reading and the dedicated support of my fellow teachers. Inmy 5
th
year, I was happy that the program expanded to afull kindergarten class and a first grade/second grade split. Theteacher who taught that class extremely effectively, again with majorsupport from our colleagues, left, presumably frustrated, early inthe second year of its existence.
Ihave volunteered to teach a bilingual split grade class again, if itis that 1
st
/2
nd
grade split. Unfortunately,our school will be reverting to having only one bilingual class, aK/1 split.
As an educator and as a learner, I live to progress, not to regress.This regression to a K/1 bilingual class is unacceptable to me. Iwill no longer allow this class to continue with my involvement. Ifit were in my power to help stop this class from happening at all, Iwould stop it.
Itis in my power to ask: does this school district really have thehuman, financial, and political resources to create and support aneffective bilingual program at Bidwell Elementary?
Piet Bess
2009-2010Mr. Bess teaches 2
nd
grade at Treeview Elementary inEnglish. David Beaston takes the bilingual K/1 position. At the endof the year, Mr. Bess takes the issue to the school's SBDM,
arguingthat the program should be canceled.
2010-2011We have a change of educational leadership: Dr. Jessica Bonduris isour principal. Change begins, and the bilingual program begins togrow through the grades. Mr. Beaston has a full K class. MairtinMacAnGhoill teaches a 1/ 2 split.
2011-2012Growth continues: Beaston, K. MacAnGhoill, 1, and Audrey Nicholsteaches a 2/ 3 split at Treeview
2012-2013Beaston K. MacAnGhoill, 1. Mr. Bess agrees to rejoin the bilingualprogram at Dr. Bonduris' request, seeing that the program is valuedand supported, and is growing upwards through the grades. He teachesthe 2
nd
grade, albeit at Bidwell, the sole 2
nd
grade class at that site. Yanira Canizales, an excellent teacher,teaches the small 3/ 4 split bilingual class at Bidwell. Mr.MacAnGhoill leaves mid-year due to medical issues, and his classsuffers a string of substitutes until Ms. Jameson, an excellent subwith Spanish skills comes in from May to the end of school. Mr.Beaston opts to leave bilingual because of heavy, and, in the case ofbilingual, doubled assessments for K. With half a class of 4
th
graders, 12-13 was our high water mark.
2013-2014Sadly, Dr. Bonduris leaves us. The program recedes: Ms.Canizales' class are put in SEI, and the program supports up to 3
rd
grade. All bilingual classes are split-grade classes at the beginningof the year. This is a hard decision taken by Dr. Bonduris anddiscussed in our SBDM [Site-Based Decision-Making group]. Bilingualteachers assent to the split-grade classes in order to ease combos inEnglish-only classes, especially in the case of a particular SEIcohort with big behavior problems. Even so, bilingualcombo classes typically have fewer children than the English-onlyclasses. Ben Hinchman, K/1. Mr. Bess, 1/ 2, and Laura Mingst with the2/ 3 combo at Treeview.
2014-15After the interim principal fails to hire teachers in a timely mannerin May, the year starts with a Mr. Hinchman in K, a Mr. Bess in 1
st
grade, and Noemi Hernandez, a very competent 30-day sub with nativeSpanish in 2
nd
grade. A planned ¾ split is canceledbefore the 10
th
day.
Wewould have had a chance to grow the program out to its historic high,up to serving children through 4
th
grade, albeit in thediminished form of a split-grade grade classroom. One one hand, wehave been unable to serve 4
th
graders this year. On theother hand, we may be able to serve 3 grades in single-gradeclassrooms in our bilingual program if we do not downgrade our 2
nd
grade bilingual class to a split.
No comments:
Post a Comment