Countywide : Spanish Classes OKd for Probation Officers

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to contract with the Berlitz Language Centers to teach Spanish to English-speaking county probation officers.

Under the contract, Berlitz would receive $8,008 in the first year of a contract that could be expanded to three years. About 35 probation officers, most of them in Santa Ana and other north county cities, would have the option of taking 80 hours of either beginning Spanish, or refresher or advanced courses. Last year the county, using a different training system, taught Spanish to about 15 probation officers, said Bill Brooks, the Probation Department’s director of training.

“It’s a part of our growing realization that we have to train people to deal with the increased pluralism in the county,” Brooks said. He said there have been efforts to recruit Spanish-speaking and Vietnamese-speaking workers as well as discussions about teaching workers Vietnamese.

From 3% to 5% of the Probation Department’s clients, he said, speak only Spanish or have families who speak only that language. About 10% of the 950 employees in the department speak Spanish, he said.