An E-mail to the School Board
(PBU due Oct. 8)
The recent school board elections in your district (the Isla Verde Unified
School District in Northern California) signaled a major change in the community.
For one thing, the demographics of the school district have shifted significantly.
While it continues to serve a primarily middle-class and professional population
who are overwhelmingly from native English-speaking backgrounds, recent world
events have caused an influx of refugees in part because of the actions of
local charitable and religious organizations. In addition, a local military
base that was closed five years ago has been converted into low-income housing,
and has drawn a substantial group of Spanish-speaking (mainly from Mexico
but about of quarter of them from other Central American countries) as well
as Tongan and Samoan families. Because the base installation falls within
the school district boundaries, there has been a significant increase in students
from these backgrounds.
The demographic changes have fuelled considerable local political controversy,
one result of which was a highly contested school board election that resulted
in new board members for 3 out of the 5 seats. The two incumbent seats represent
traditional liberal perspectives sympathetic to immigrants at an abstract
level, but with little experience in dealing with language minority populations
-- the district has had only a small (about 2%) group of children of foreign
professionals in the computer and biotechnology industries. The three new
seats are made up of the following:
-
Ruth Segal, a retired attorney whose own children attended
the public schools, and who ran out of concern for the education of her
young grandchildren. In the elections, Ms. Segal was outspoken about the
need for making the schools the best they can be for all students, and that
different students have different needs, and principals and schools, especially
the site councils, should be given considerable resources and leeway in
determining what's best for the school. In her campaign speeches, she spoke
passionately about the wisdom of true local control and the "broken
promises of centralized bureaucracy". She said the problems posed by
the influx of immigrants and refugees into the district can be taken care
of locally, because they are concentrated mostly in two out of the district's
twelve elementary schools.
-
Adrian Belago, a CEO of a small high-technology company
with a doctorate in computer science. Mr. Belago is a personal admirer of
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and political Libertarian Ron K. Unz, who authored
Proposition 227. He campaigned almost exclusively on the coat-tails of the
popularity of Proposition 227, saying that the English learners should be
placed in intensive English immersion classes and that the district should
not even consider instituting bilingual education programs for its new groups
of students. He has spent considerable time in Israel, where his company
has an office, and believes that the Israelis have a successful system of
assimilation of immigrants into Hebrew, and that the same should be done
here. Unlike Mr. Unz, however, Mr. Belago has a history of anti-immigrant
activity, including serving on a local committee to promote Proposition
187 which banned public services to undocumented residents (for the record,
Mr. Unz was actively opposed to Proposition 187 because he felt that it
would alienate immigrants).
-
Sara Cantiller-Chang, a parent who was born in the Philippines
and immigrated when her American-born husband changed jobs and moved to
the Isla Verde area. Ms. Cantiller-Chang early in her career was a high
school English teacher in Manila. She believes in the value of bilingualism,
and she has been a vocal advocate for better foreign language programs in
the schools. Her message resonated strongly with the local business community
and, because of her engagement with local civic organizations such as the
Rotary Club, she was widely considered the "establishment" candidate
during the campaign. Curiously, aside from showing compassion citing her
own immigrant background, Ms. Cantiller-Chang did not take an active position
with respect to the language minority students in the schools, saying that
she would study the matter thoroughly if she is elected.
The first school board meeting of the year is about to take place next Tuesday,
and one of the agenda items is a discussion of programs and policies for English
learners. You are concerned that the school board lacks even the most basic
information on the legal rights of these students. Based on what you know
from the readings, write an e-mail memorandum to the school board outlining
the district's responsibilities under Federal law to educate these students.
The note should be short -- no more than 800 words -- people don't read long
e-mails. Be sure to give them the gist of the major federal court decisions
as well as a sense of where they should turn for additional information. Try
to be creative in making the information as appealing to the board members
as possible!