By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
Bethel School District has been awarded a state grant to help pay for teaching students in two languages – English and their home language of Spanish.
Bethel, which will receive $15,800, is one of 10 school districts statewide and two tribal compact schools that were selected by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the financial support of K-12 dual language programs. All of the grants are in identical or similar amounts.
“These grants will help students learn practically by applying English and a second language to core subjects,” said state Superintendent Chris Reykdal, who announced them Nov. 1.
The grants will be used to help prepare teachers for working with students in dual-language learning, to help recruit bilingual teachers, and to purchase supplementary instructional materials. The funding was authorized this year by the Legislature, and “I applaud legislators for understanding this need,” said Reykdal, who is in his first year as superintendent.
Bethel’s program, based at Thompson Elementary School, focuses on bilingual proficiency while integrating native Spanish and English-speaking students, starting in kindergarten. Parent nights are hosted by the district to explain the program before parents can sign up their children for it.
Thompson is serving 117 students in kindergarten through second grade. Third-grade dual-language classes will be added next year, according to district officials.
Throughout Washington, “there is a need for all students to learn two languages,” starting in kindergarten “if not earlier,” Reykdal said. “Knowing how to communicate in multiple languages, especially in our increasingly diverse and globally interdependent world, is crucial to student success beyond high school.”
The dual-language grant funding that was authorized by the Legislature totals $900,000 and is to be spread over the period of 2017 to 2019.
Bethel is one of two school districts, along with Franklin Pierce, in Pierce County to be selected for a grant so far. Franklin Pierce is the other. Of the other eight districts, four each are in western and eastern Washington. The tribal schools are Quileute in La Push and Wa He Lut in Olympia.
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