Bilingual Teachers in Demand : Education: Students deficient in English grow to about 19% of area enrollment, posing particular challenges for west county campuses.

By TRACY WILSON

July 3, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The number of Ventura County public school students who speak little or no English swelled to 22,508 last year, and educators say they cannot hire bilingual teachers fast enough to keep up with the demand.

More than 860 students with limited English skills joined county classrooms in 1994. They now constitute about 19% of the county’s 120,733 students, state officials said. That ranks Ventura County 11th in the state for enrollment of English-deficient children.

Five districts in west Ventura County--Oxnard Elementary, Hueneme Elementary, Santa Paula Elementary, Fillmore Unified and Oxnard Union High--continued to exceed state and county averages for enrollment of students with limited English-speaking skills last year.

At least 95% of these students are fluent in Spanish, officials said.

The situation is most dramatic in Oxnard, where the number of non-fluent high school students has quadrupled in the past seven years and nearly one in two elementary-age students speaks little or no English. Statewide, the ratio is one in five.

That contrasts to Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, where only one in 20 students have difficulty speaking English. The Conejo Valley Unified School District enrolled only 968 non-fluent students in its 17,816-student population this past year--fewer than the year before. Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson attributed the decline to Thousand Oaks’ high cost of living. “Housing is expensive,” he said, “and limited.”

The increasing number of English-deficient students presents several challenges for schools. Educators worry that a scarcity of certified bilingual teachers may shortchange students, denying them educational advantages afforded to mainstream students.

Until students are proficient, many school districts provide instruction in both the native tongue and English. In Fillmore and Oxnard, for example, students remain in such programs for about three years, educators said. But the shortage of qualified teachers can force some students into English-only classes, where the language barrier can impede learning.

“It is difficult,” said Fillmore Unified School District Supt. Mario V. Contini. “We have a lot of well-trained people but there just aren’t enough.”

Statewide, only about half of the bilingual teachers needed are currently available, said David Dolson, a bilingual consultant with the state Department of Education.

“The growth of teachers does not match the growth of students.”

That is the Oxnard Elementary School District’s chief problem. The 13,216-student district added 307 English-deficient students last year and 353 students the year before that, according to state statistics.

In 1994, the district counted 6,083 limited English speakers or 46% of its total enrollment, according to a state report.

Oxnard Elementary has 182 classrooms designated for students with limited English skills and 91 certified bilingual teachers. While that is more than most districts, officials are still looking for additional instructors.

“There is not a district in the county that, when a bilingual teacher walks through the door, doesn’t say, ‘Hmm, you want a contract?’ ” said English-language development manager Stephanie Purdy.

Like other districts, Oxnard Elementary recruits extensively and offers a $1,000 bonus to lure bilingual teachers.

Outgoing Hueneme Elementary Assistant Supt. Yolanda Benitez has even tried to recruit future bilingual teachers from her own elementary school classrooms.

That approach appears to be working. This year she hired four first-year bilingual teachers who were once limited-English-proficient students in Oxnard and Hueneme district classrooms.

Districts are also offering more incentives for teachers to become bilingual. Oxnard Elementary awards a $1,500 bonus to teachers who pass the state’s bilingual exam. Fillmore Unified offers teachers a $500 bonus.

But money for such incentives is in short supply, educators said. Although schools receive extra funds from the state for bilingual education, it is not nearly enough, Fillmore’s Contini said.

“I am not saying that it is not enough to do what we want to do, but it is not enough to do what we need to do,” he said.

Fillmore experienced the largest percentage increase in enrollment of English-deficient students last year. In 1993, 33% of the district’s students were identified as English-deficient. In 1994, the number jumped to 40% and at some schools reached as high as 50%, Contini said. The increase came, in part, from a new, low-income housing project in the area, he said.

Some school districts are creating special programs to meet the changing needs of their English-deficient pupils.

Oxnard Elementary, for example, is launching a “newcomers’ class” in the fall for Spanish-speaking immigrant children who have recently arrived in the area. The course will be housed at Elm Street School.

“The fact is that we do have large numbers of students coming to us from non-English-speaking countries that have not had consistent schooling,” Assistant Supt. Richard Duarte said.

The class will supplement existing bilingual programs, which are designed to gradually move students from classes taught in their native language and English to classes taught entirely in English.

If a student starts a bilingual program in kindergarten, he or she will probably be ready to join an English-only class by third grade, educators say.

“We are going to try to get the student strong in his primary language and start exposing the student early on to the other language,” Fillmore’s Contini explained.

That approach--and bilingual education in general--has been debated recently by California educators and politicians. Local school officials acknowledge that running their programs in such a climate has been difficult, and maintaining them could be even harder.

“Since the advent of [Proposition] 187 and the attitudes that have come out of that, it has made it hard,” said Cliff Rodrigues, director of bilingual education for the Ventura County superintendent of schools office.

“People are questioning, ‘Do we really need this?’ ” Rodrigues said. “Yes, we need this. The success of those kids, the success of this county really depend on it. . . . We need those people to be productive citizens. We cannot have them as second-class, uneducated people.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Limited English Proficiency

Percentage of public school K-12 enrollment, 1993 and 1994 figures.

State total 1993: 22 1994: 23

Simi Valley Unified 1993: 5 1994: 5

Thousand Oaks CV Unified 1993: 6 1994: 5

Ojai Unified 1993: 6 1994: 6.5

Camarillo Elementary 1993: 8 1994: 8

Ventura Unified 1993: 11 1994: 11

Moorpark Unified 1993: 15 1994: 15

Ventura County Total 1993: 18 1994: 19

Santa Paula High School 1993: 21 1994: 17