For Blanca Jimenez, the bilingual program at Community Consolidated District 59`s Ridge School in Elk Grove Village has meant more than teaching her two children how to speak English.
It has taught her to be a better parent, too.
”Here, I learned a lot of things I never would have learned if I was still in Mexico,” said Jimenez, 35, who has been in the Chicago area about five years.
The program, she said, has taught her medical precautions for her children, ways to improve their schoolwork, and how to steer them from such influences as gangs and drugs.
”It was very hard in the beginning for us,” said Jimenez, who lives in Arlington Heights. So it was comforting for her 7-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son to be in a school with teachers and other students who spoke the same language.
But when Jimenez`s children, and about 400 others who speak 16 different languages, returned to classes this week, it was to a far different bilingual program. What had been done in one school was now divided among four.
More Top Picks Kites
And some parents fear the change is for the worse.
In the past, the students spent half of every school day at Ridge School, 650 Ridge Ave. in Elk Grove Village, for the bilingual instruction. But this year, the space at Ridge is needed to accommodate 400 children from Clearmont School, 280 Clearmont Drive in Elk Grove Village, which is undergoing renovations.
So the bilingual program will be divided among Grove Junior High and Byrd School in Elk Grove Village, Low School in Arlington Heights, and Frost School in Mt. Prospect.
Some parents don`t want the change, however. At Ridge, they contend, their children had a fine teaching environment, as well as a feeling of belonging and friendship with teachers and students who spoke the same language.
In addition, they said, Ridge School had become something of a counseling center for them, with teachers providing information on topics ranging from medical needs to child guidance.
School officials say such concerns are unfounded. Not only will the program be as good, they say, in some cases it will be better. To begin with, they point out, many of the children will be much closer to their bilingual classes.
Instead of taking a long bus ride from their home schools to Ridge School, the children will go to schools that average no more than five to 10 minutes away, district Supt. James Fay said. And in some cases, he added, the kids will receive their instruction in their home school.
The six bilingual teachers will all be going to the four other schools, Fay said. Parents were worried that the teachers, who already had a bond with the children, weren`t going to be allowed to go with them.
”I think once their children get into their classrooms, wherever they are, I think they`ll discover that their children are in fact getting the same quality of education that they got last year,” said Mary Krigas, school board president for District 59.
Fay understood the parents` concern about children feeling a sense of loss at not being together at Ridge School. He had a meeting Tuesday with Hispanic parents, who make up the largest minority in the program, to discuss their fears, and has set another meeting for Sept. 16. The parents plan to attend a school board meeting on Sept. 14 to express their concerns.
District 59 will work with various community organizations and other agencies to continue to provide the additional services the parents received from the bilingual program, Fay said.
But Fay stressed that the aim of the program is not to just keep the kids together, but to make sure they interacted with other children at other schools.
”What we`re trying to do is integrate them into our schools and our community, not to segregate them,” Fay said. ”Isn`t that what America is all about?”