By Joshua Lucas
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL – Teachers and school district employees – including those who don’t live in the school district – might have unfair access to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system’s competitive dual-language elementary school programs, some school board members say.
The program’s admissions policies came under scrutiny at a May 19 school board meeting, with some board members questioning whether it was appropriate that district employees may have easier access to the program than other parents.
‘If I live out of district, I could pick to go to the FPG lottery or I could pick to go to the Carrboro lottery. But if I live in-district, I cannot pick to go to Carrboro Elementary unless I live in Carrboro Elementary’s attendance zone,†board member Michelle Brownstein said. “The way we have it set up now, it’s not equitable for people who live in-district. They don’t have the same level of access.â€
Dual-language programs feature instruction in everyday subjects in both English and a second language. The programs are offered at four Chapel Hill-Carrboro district elementary schools: Carrboro, Frank Porter Graham, Scroggs and Glenwood. The Glenwood program is in Mandarin Chinese; the other three are in Spanish.
Admission to the program for non-native speakers of the languages is by an annual lottery system at each school.
District staff are allowed to enroll their children at the district school of their choice if there is room. Because all schools are potentially open to them, district employees have access to all four dual-language elementary schools. Parents with children in the district have access only to the school to which they are zoned. Superintendent Neil Pedersen stressed that the distinction isn’t between out-of-district students and in-district ones, but between district staff and ordinary parents.
Out-of-district staff children are disproportionately represented in the programs, board member Mike Kelley noted. Of the 108 elementary students from outside the district, 12 of them are enrolled in the dual-language program. He said that’s about twice the rate of in-district students.
District staffers stressed that no preference is given to staff members’ children for enrollment in the program.
Expanding elementary language instruction ultimately would solve the problem of demand outstripping access to the program, Kelley said.
“Ultimately, this problem goes away if every child can get into the program if they want to,†he said.
Kelley also questioned why pupils in the pre-kindergarten dual-language program at Carrboro elementary were allowed to stay at that school for kindergarten rather than attend the schools to which they are zoned, as pupils in other pre-kindergarten programs do.
District stafffers said that was how the program was originally designed, and that the goal was to afford dual-language pupils at Carrboro a seamless experience moving from pre-kindergarten into elementary school.