COSTA MESA : 250 Express Worries on School Changes

More than 250 people, many concerned about the effects of bilingual instruction for their children, attended a meeting at Estancia High School on Monday night to discuss possible boundary and grade changes being proposed for area elementary schools.

Projections show that all four elementary schools in the Estancia High School zone will reach capacity in the next two years, and district staff members have developed nine alternatives for handling that growth for the Newport-Mesa Unified School Board to consider.

The option that the district staff has formally recommended would require some pupils from California, Wilson and Pomona elementary schools to attend Adams Kindergarten Center for kindergarten through fifth grade. It would also move sixth-graders in the zone to TeWinkle Intermediate School.

At Monday’s meeting, however, some parents expressed concern about long bus trips for their children, and others fretted about students working in portable classrooms. But most of the attention eventually turned to bilingual instruction.

The staff’s recommended proposal would mean that about 20% of the students attending Adams will have limited English-speaking ability. Some parents say they are worried that the addition of a significant number of students without proficiency in English would slow down the progress of English-speaking students.

“All of the people I have talked to, without exception, agree that equal opportunity and equal access to the best public education that can be obtained is an absolute essential,” said Kenneth Wong, a parent who attended the meeting. “But our concern is that English-speaking students may be impaired from moving ahead and learning as fast as they are capable.”

Assistant Supt. Carol Berg, however, said that English-speaking students continue to excel when taught in bilingual classrooms. Berg also reassured parents that teachers will continue to devote their energy to English-speaking students, even in a bilingual classroom.

Berg invited parents who have never witnessed bilingual instruction to visit and “see the wonderful mix of students that we have, and what happens in the classroom.”

Still, some parents said they were concerned that test scores would drop when classrooms became bilingual. Berg said this concern was unfounded, and that studies show bilingual classrooms average higher test scores than classes taught without the specialized instruction.

The school board is expected to reach a final decision Oct. 23.