Dual-Language program will split

The parents of students at the Mariposa Dual Language School gathered in the Jefferson County Middle School gym Thursday evening to hear about the future of the program.

At the last 509J school board meeting in January, parents filled the meeting with commentary against the dissolution of the one-site dual language school.

At the Feb. 1 meeting, Jay Mathisen, 509J superintendent, announced the school would be split into two programs within Madras and Buff Elementaries, with a K-5 class at each school.

“At this decision point, both the limits of physical spaces and a belief in providing maximum and equal access to as many students as possible led us to a model in which dual language programming will be an option in both Buff Elementary and Madras Elementary, in the coming fall. The program will serve students in grades K-2 in both schools during the 2024-25 school year and will add a grade level each year until reaching through 5th grade in the 2027-28 school year,” said Mathisen in a statement.

Parents with students in the program expressed significant concerns about the change during the meeting, where they brought up questions about staffing, school selection and the quality of the program. Parents also questioned why the decision to change what they considered a school, though the district argues has always been a program, was up to the sole discretion of the superintendent.

One parent said in the meeting “We put our trust in you all to have the teachers and the staff to make this school successful, and we sent our kids to this new program. We needed this to come about in a different way, this was sprung on us. All these decisions were made before we had any discussion of it.”

The new dual-language program will be housed inside the two elementary schools, but entering the program will be done through the same lottery program as before and is open to all students within the 509J district.

The biggest point of contention comes in the designation of Mariposa as a school, versus a program. For parents, when they began dual language, it was billed to them as a school. In 2023, the district announced what was known as the 509J dual language program would now be called the Mariposa Dual Language School. For many, this solidified that the school was in fact a school, not a program within the district, and brought some stability. The signage all uses the word school, and Mariposa Dual Language is listed under the ‘Schools’ tab on the 509J website.

The district says this is a misnomer. “The program was originally and is still registered with the state as a program, rather than a school,” said Mathisen. “The choice was made to start the program in its current space to provide a strong start and allow the program to build momentum and success before finding a more permanent location or locations.”

For many parents, concerns about staffing also raise a big red flag as the program is set to change. Mathisen stated in the meeting that the district planned to hire the same number of dual-lingual teachers and would try their best to keep instruction at a 50/50 ratio of Spanish and English. “We have some support staff currently that are fluent, and they will be working with students in dual language as much as possible as well,” said Mathisen. “There will still be adults fluent in Spanish with the kids.”

Parents however pushed back on this idea, with concerns that enough staff would not be hired at each school, and that while educational assistants know Spanish, many are not comfortable doing instruction in Spanish. Additionally, neither school principal speaks Spanish.

Billie White and Jean Bendele, principals at Buff and Madras Elementaries, were present at the parent meeting. Mariposa’s principal, Laura Contreras-Weiss, will now take the position of director of dual language for the district. Bendele said at the meeting, “We’re looking forward to bringing this program and using the staff we have and bringing more staff on. We’re reading books Laura suggested, we’re doing trainings, we’re meeting with other principals with similar programs in their schools. We’re making sure we’re ready to support this program in our schools.”

Mathisen told parents at the meeting that he had spoken with staff at the schools, and had heard they were excited for the program, and were ready to make it happen and make instruction for their students in the program happen. Parents however, stated they’d heard from district staff they felt overwhelmed and underprepared to add the programs to their schools.

Other solutions were presented before the final decision was made to split the program, one being a dual-language immersion magnet school. Parents supported this idea, as it kept the school together, but Mathisen says that a magnet school would create barriers to accessibility.

“Our district would not be serving all students well to set it up in a single school as a magnet. Magnets at the elementary school level separate young children into schools defined by haves and have-nots. Magnets disadvantage those who are often already marginalized in ways that all other efforts to compensate or bring equity to the system will not make up for. Magnets are perhaps the ultimate structural or system move that districts make that is harmful and is not aligned to the value 509J places on all students flourishing in our schools,” said Mathisen in a statement.

The problem of accessibility is another sticking point for parents. Students within the small program have smaller class sizes and smaller staff to student ratios. Parents of students in special education programs have specific concerns that their students will not get the same instruction, as special education staff at the two elementary schools do not have dual language skills. The principals stated they currently have no more than two support staff members that are fluent in Spanish.

“Our Spanish dual immersion language program has been wildly successful since we launched it in the fall of 2022 with two kindergarten classrooms in our school district. Due to talented and dedicated staff, skilled leadership, and a fantastic level of support from families, Spanish immersion dual language is off to the strong start for which we had hoped and planned,” said Mathisen in a statement. “We have a choice at this moment to bring Spanish dual immersion language to multiple neighborhood schools, providing the fewest barriers and maximum access to that strong research-based learning methodology.”

Mathisen assured parents that the program was not going anywhere, despite their concerns. He said that as long as there is demand and students want to be in the program, there is staffing to the best of the district’s ability and there is school leadership. For many parents, those three anchors keeping the program alive seem less than sure.