SANTA CLARITA : City to Help Pay for Spanish Classes

Anticipating growth in Santa Clarita’s Latino population, now estimated at 13%, the City Council has appropriated $10,000 to pay half the tuition of voluntary Spanish classes for about 35 municipal and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employees.

Participants will pay the remainder of the $590-per-person tuition, officials said.

Even this new funding may not meet demand for the 30-week course, which participants attend during lunch or off-duty hours, officials said.

At least 30 of the city’s full- and part-time employees, including City Manager George Caravalho and Assistant City Manager Kenneth Pulskamp, already have started or completed training in Spanish, and many others have expressed interest in taking the course, city spokeswoman Gail Foy said Wednesday.

“Our Latino population is growing--not at the rate of many other cities in Los Angeles County, but enough to convince us that we need to be a full-service city government,” Foy said.

At the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, where only a few deputies and other employees are bilingual, at least 35 are interested in learning Spanish, said Lt. John Vander Horck, watch commander of the Santa Clarita Valley station.

Vander Horck said the Sheriff’s Department wants to be responsive to change throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. “One of the biggest things we do is communicate,” he said, “and this kind of training can only help us do it better.”