
{"id":25865,"date":"2012-05-10T10:34:26","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T14:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=25865"},"modified":"2012-05-10T09:43:07","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T13:43:07","slug":"dual-language-concerns-still-dominate-school-board-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/05\/10\/dual-language-concerns-still-dominate-school-board-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual-language concerns still dominate school board meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rose Laudicina<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><br \/>\nAnother Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education meeting, another hour dedicated to dual language. <\/p>\n<p>Although it was nowhere on the agenda of last Thursday night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting, parents, students and staff from Frank Porter Graham Elementary and Glenwood Elementary schools attended the meeting to voice their concerns. <\/p>\n<p>Due to the large volume of people who showed up to the board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s April 19 meeting to speak against the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent dual-language recommendations, a police officer was on hand at this meeting to help with crowd control, and comments were again limited to two minutes instead of the usual three. <\/p>\n<p>However, before the public comments even started, school board member Jamezetta Bedford apologized for how quickly the report containing the dual-language recommendations was released. <\/p>\n<p>Bedford told the packed room she believed that if the board had a chance to do it over again they would have liked to create it with more input from the affected parties. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We would have liked to meet in advance with you all before that dual-language report was released,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bedford said as the crowd thanked her and gave her a loud round of applause. <\/p>\n<p>The dual-language administrative team, formed by the school board, released a report on March 26 with recommendations on how to improve the school district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dual-language programs. These included expanding the Spanish dual-language program, terminating the K-5 Mandarin program at Glenwood and converting Frank Porter Graham to a Spanish dual-language magnet school for the 2013-14 school year. <\/p>\n<p>Many parents said they thought the recommendations were made too quickly, without thoughtful research into how the different communities would be affected. <\/p>\n<p>Kristin Somers, who has been helping resettle Karen refugees through Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, talked to the school board about how the Karen population would be negatively affected if FPG is turned into a magnet school. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You think that children are the most adaptable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Somers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153However, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a struggle to make friends and complete their school work for those who cannot speak English.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Somers talked about how the large Karen community surrounding FPG helps support one another when parents don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have cars or have to work nights. <\/p>\n<p>While many spoke about their grievances with the report, some parents presented the school board with solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Stevens, a parent of three children at FPG, suggested the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elementary school 12 should become a dual-language magnet school when it opens. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone will know that if their child is in dual language they will be moved there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stevens said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That means no surprises.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to fight about whose school Frank Porter Graham gets to be,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The dual-language advisory team will be presenting to the board at their May 17 meeting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education meeting, another hour dedicated to dual language. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25866,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25865\/revisions\/25866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}