Parents seek language improvement

Members of the group Multilingual Shelton are asking the Shelton School District to hire an administrator to coordinate the English Learner and Dual Language programs, hire more dual language-certified teachers, and "restore quality and integrity" to Evergreen Elementary School's program.

On Oct. 20, about 100 people packed the gym at Evergreen Elementary School in downtown Shelton to hear updates and concerns about the Shelton School District's dual language program. The group Multiligual Shelton, parents of children currently in the school's program and those who have graduated, requested the district-sponsored event.

In an email to the Journal, Multiligual Shelton member Erica Marbet expressed concerns about the program.

"The program has been on the rocks in recent years as the district has not recruited trained staff, not sent their staff to appropriate dual language training, cut off the fifth-grade year of the program - actually dropped every class the program had all the way to the seventh grade - and cut enrollment for kindergartners by over half," she wrote. "Many families support the program and have attended school board meetings to say so this last spring and summer."

Multilingual Shelton's nine recommendations to the district also include offering ongoing education to dual language and English Learner teachers and staff; regularly informing English Learner families of their opportunity to choose transitional bilingual education; and expanding a dual language strand to all its elementary and secondary schools.

At the Evergreen event, Superintendent Wyeth Jessee told the attendees the district is devoted to the dual language program.

Jessee also stressed the district needs to remain in compliance with special education laws. Evergreen Elementary School has a limited number of classrooms, and the school's attendance has dropped by about 100 students in the past five years, he said.

Families who have children in the dual language program are "grandfathered" in, Jessee said.

The superintendent said the district is trying to recruit more English language learner teachers. The district is also looking at current middle and high school students in the district who might want to work as dual language teachers in the district in the future, he said.

Cat Kelly, the district's multilingual education coordinator, said enrollment in the district's multilingual program has risen from 451 in the 2014-2015 school year to about 1,000 this school year.