GCS budget request

[Suzan Antin]

Dear Parents and Foreign Language Advocates,

 

I want to let you know that Dr. Grier has included a position for a foreign language curriculum specialist in his budget for the 2006-07 school year.

 

This is a position which many immersion parents have been requesting for the past three years.

 

For those who may be new to Jones, let me offer some further background and explanation.  In the late fall of 2003, a group of Jones and Aycock immersion parents began meeting with other community foreign language advocates to try to find some solutions to what we saw as "big picture" issues with the way immersion transitions from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school. Additionally the Jones parents had concerns about immersion program standards (there really were not any from the county's perspective, only standards that were developed over time by the immersion staff and Jones principal, who was leaving), as well as concerns about acquiring more permanent immersion staff members as the immersion program grew.  Aycock and Grimsley parents had very real concerns about the curriculum for immersion at the middle and high school levels.

 

As we made connections, we quickly realized that there is no one at central office who is a foreign language educator.  Other academic areas are represented, ESL, Advanced Learners, Special Education students and other groups have central office staff members who are knowledgeable about their programs and issues, but foreign language does not have anyone. Foreign Language was (and is currently) assigned to a curriculum specialist whose background and training is in another area.  This person has had other curricular responsibilities in addition to foreign language.  This is an anomaly among large school systems in North Carolina - those with which we are often compared all have at least one FL curriculum person on their central office staff.

 

The absence of a FL educator impacts all FL teachers and students in many ways.  For example, the Guilford County Schools have not offered any staff development specifically tailored to the needs of FL teachers in over ten years.  There is no one with regional and national connections who can help the Human Resources office recruit excellent, permanent teachers.  There is no one who can train our FL and immersion teachers in the most effective ways to teach.  There is no agreement county-wide about what must be taught in each FL course.  There is no sequential curriculum for immersion with expected outcomes at each level.  There is no outside assessment of FL students' or immersion students' proficiency. I could go on and on.

 

We saw the funding of a position for a true FL educator as essential to the long-term success of immersion and all other FL programs and began lobbying the school board and Dr. Grier to include such a position in the budget.

 

Please take time to email or write Dr. Grier and the school board and thank them for including the position in this year's proposed budget and urge them to maintain it once the county commissioners have made their funding decisions.  Your email or letter need not be lengthy but it is important that Dr. Grier and the board hear from many of us.

 

Dr. Grier's email address is gri...@gcsnc.com.  You can find the email ID's for the school board members at the GCS website:  www.gcsnc.com under Leadership/Board of Education/Members. I suggest that you write to Alan Duncan, Chair; Amos Quick, Vice-Chair; Dorothy Kearns, At Large; Dr. Nancy Routh, At Large; Deena Hayes, the representative for the Jones feeder zone AND your representative based upon where you live.  If you do not know who your neighborhood representative is, you can go to http://gcms0004.co.guilford.nc.us/elections_cms/ and on the left side of the page, just under the Guilford County seal, you will see "Voter Information Lookup".  Click on this and you will be asked to type in your address, then you will be provided with the names of all the elected officials, including the school board representative for your area.

 

Dr. Grier has expressed some concern in the past about the fact that he receives criticism for adding administrative positions.  I can assure you that having a foreign language educator at central office is essential for a well--planned transition to middle and high school for immersion students but it is also much needed for all FL programs, not just immersion.  I taught Spanish in Greensboro and High Point for 19 years, from 1978-1996 and again in 2004-05, so I have first-hand knowledge of the needs.  The budgeted cost for the position is less than $70,000.

 

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. 

 

Please take time in the next few days to do this if at all possible.  The county commissioners will make a decision about the funding of all county agencies in June and then the school board and all other departments will have to make their own decisions about their final budgets by June 30.

 

Sincerely,

 

Suzan Antin

Suzan...@yahoo.com

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