LAGUNA BEACH : Schools Face a Latino Challenge

Responding to a sharp increase in the number of Spanish-speaking students, the school district is expanding a program to integrate them into city schools.

Over the past four years, the number of students in the district’s English-as-a-Second-Language program has jumped from 20 to 183, said schools Supt. Dennis Smith. As a result, the district has encouraged teachers to take special classes and has pulled Latino parents into the program. In the fall, the ESL program will be expanded to meet the growing need at a cost of $82,050, more than $27,000 over last year.

“We’ve really just turned the system around with regard to what we’re doing for ESL students,” Smith said. The increase in Spanish-speaking students, he said, “isn’t something we anticipated, and we don’t know where it will lead us, actually.

While the number of ESL students in Laguna Beach is small compared to other Orange County school districts, Smith said it represents a significant and growing percentage of the city’s school population. Laguna Beach, with 2,200 students in its four schools, is the smallest unified school district in the county.

The newest addition to the growing ESL program is a parent advisory group intended to encourage family participation. Some Latino parents also are taking English lessons in the evening, Smith said. Teachers are being encouraged to take Spanish lessons and classes on the Latino culture, Smith said.

Both parents and students have been “very responsive and very appreciative,” said Robert Klempen, program supervisor.

“This has been an emerging population, and we’ve really geared up to try to help these people,” Klempen added.

Among the problems faced by school officials is the higher dropout rate among non-English-speaking students, the difficulties of translating lessons into Spanish and the frustration of teachers struggling with new skills.

“They’re excited but a little frustrated, I think, at the same time,” Klempen said. “You don’t learn Spanish in two weeks.”

Still, Smith said, the schools are experiencing success in bringing Spanish-speaking youngsters into the mainstream.

“Success is when we see they are not longtimers or lifers in a program,” he said. “The intent isn’t to teach them in Spanish. It’s to teach them in English but to use their own native tongue to assist them.”