Posted

Aug 28th 2008

Mood

Angry

Music

"Alfie" - Lily Allen

These are my little brothers we're talking about here.
They can't get into school because they don't speak Spanish.
As a reminder, I live in the U.S.
This is a link to the Houston Press:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2008/08/bilingual_education.php

And this is my mother's account of all this:



"August 24, 2008

Registering for Spring Branch Independent School District

My name is Kelly Martinez and, according to the SBISD website, my sons, Michael and Matthew Ferrier (3111 Peppermill) are zoned to Edgewood Elementary, which has both standard primary education and a pre-K program for low income families.

Friday, after lunch, I went to Edgewood in order to enroll both boys. Following a brief wait, and after being mistakenly addressed in Spanish, I was told that no registration would be taking place until the Tuesday following the first day of school. I asked if school wasn’t starting Monday and was told that it was, but everyone there would be too busy to deal with registration. That was startling, but I plowed on and asked if there was any way for me to get some information and/or paperwork for the boys, so that we could be ready for Tuesday. I explained that they were 4 and 6 years old, so it helps to get a head start, and was informed that my 4 year old could not go to Edgewood at all. I explained again that we were in the zone and met the income requirements, only to be told that since he didn’t speak Spanish he couldn’t go to school there. I said that didn’t make any sense. I was told that there was not only an income requirement, but a language requirement (Spanish) to go to pre-K at Edgewood Elementary. I replied that I had checked the district website and the school website and neither specified a Language requirement, in addition to the fact that this is the United States and the only language requirement that I was aware of is not Spanish. However, I was given information for a “Pre-K center” and told he would be very happy there, while my 6 year old would be put into an ESL classroom on Tuesday. I explained that I did not want my children on separate campuses during their first educational experience and was informed that I did not have a choice. So I left.

After trying 2 more SBISD campuses, I went home and started calling the Spring Branch School District. I spoke with a woman named Jackie, who informed me that there was no language requirement for any SBISD pre-K programs, the only requirement being low income. She didn’t understand why my 6 year old would be in an ESL classroom either. Her understanding was that all SBISD schools are required to meet the needs of all of their students, mainstream or otherwise, and a mainstream classroom environment is certainly not a special need. She went on to say that for someone to be placed in a non-conducive learning environment or to be excluded due to not speaking a foreign language would be discrimination and she was sure there had been a mistake. Jackie’s idea was that I had spoken to a person who didn’t understand SBISD school policies and, if I called Edgewood and asked for Patty, the situation could be resolved to my satisfaction.

I did get Patty on the phone and we had basically the same conversation as the Edgewood desk lady and I had with the exception that Patty was more patient, polite and professional about telling me that I had no choice but to send my boys to separate campuses and that my 6 year old would be in an ESL classroom. I explained that my 6 year old had no second language and needed to be in a mainstream learning environment. She informed me that ESL is a mainstream learning environment and I should just give it a chance. I asked Patty if there was another school in my zone with both pre-K and a mainstream learning environment and was told that to put the boys in another school would require testing for special programs and the testing was done for this school year. She reiterated that I should give separate schools a chance. I thanked her for her time and called the SBISD offices again.

I spoke with Jackie again, briefly, but when I explained what I had been told by Patty at Edgewood, she decided to transfer me to Patty Page, who deals with elementary level schools. Patty Page started our conversation by telling me that the Edgewood Elementary Pre-K Program did have a language requirement (Spanish), as well as a low income requirement, and that an ESL classroom is a mainstream classroom. So I said that a mainstream classroom is a mainstream classroom and an ESL classroom is an English as a Second Language classroom and my sons do not speak another language, so they do not need to be in a classroom where their language is considered secondary. Patty informed me that the goal of an ESL classroom is to teach in English as much as possible, therefore ESL is a mainstream classroom. I replied that my sons only speak English and do not need to be in a classroom where they ‘teach in English as much as possible’ and I wanted to know if there were alternatives. Is there another school where the boys can be on the same campus and in mainstream classes? Patty answered that the district has bilingual classes and ESL classes and the ESL classes are their mainstream classes, but you have to give it a chance or work for the district to understand it. I replied that I had worked for HISD, I understood completely what both bilingual and ESL classes were, not mainstream, that it is discriminatory to penalize children because they don’t have special needs and that there should be more options for mainstream education. In addition to the separate school factor and language issue, how was I supposed to get 2 small children to 2 different schools at the same time? The answer to that was busing, but at 2 separate pickup locations. The next question was how do you get to 2 separate bus stops at the same time? The answer was that I was being unreasonable, I had been offered reasonable solutions and perfectly acceptable options and I didn’t want to accept them. I explained that I didn’t feel that anyone had offered any option that wasn’t exactly where we started and that wasn’t acceptable. Patty explained that if I would just send my sons where they were supposed to go, I would find that it wasn’t so bad. My only other option being to find a principal who would agree to let the boys transfer in (with the transfer deadline past), I thanked her and ended the call.

August 25, 2008

I got my boys ready for school and headed for the one nearest me, Hollibrook Elementary, arriving at 7:39 am. We were asked to wait until 9:30 am, when registration would resume and Marta would try and help us. Marta got to us a few minutes after 10 am (there were others waiting ahead of us, Marta’s fast) and she explained that the district had cut Hollibrook’s English pre-K this year, having decided that 15-18 English speaking pre-K students wasn’t enough to justify spending money on teachers for them. So Hollibrook now only offers bilingual pre-K for Spanish speaking students, but all other grade levels offer both bilingual and mainstream classes. Marta explained that she understood my concern about getting both boys to separate schools on time and added that, in the afternoon, they would be getting out at exactly the same time. She offered me a list of schools in this area, with phone numbers and principals listed, so that I could try and find a campus to meet our needs, and assured me that if that wasn’t possible, Hollibrook would take my 6 year old.

We took a break for lunch and to make those phone calls, and discovered that Cedar Brook (next door to Edgewood, the boys’ zoned school) did have space for both boys, did have English and bilingual classes for both grades and would start registration Tuesday morning. My adult daughter went to the school with me to keep an eye on the boys while I spoke to the registrar and the principal about what process we needed to follow to allow the boys to go to school there. The registrar, Ms. Guerra, explained that we would have to speak to the principal, Ms. Madsen, before she could help us with registration, and asked if we could wait in the office until the principal was free.

While we were waiting (my daughter was standing between my sons’ chairs to keep them calm), a lovely blond woman approached my daughter with a big smile and a friendly greeting, exclaiming that my daughter looked much too young to have such big boys and asked if she was there to enroll them. My daughter said that she was indeed at Cedar Brook for enrollment, but that these were her brothers and her mother was over there, gesturing towards me, across the table. The woman looked at me, stopped smiling and walked out.

It was about 20 minutes before the woman returned, introduced herself as Principal Madsen and asked what I needed to speak to her about. I explained the situation and asked if she would be willing to sign the paperwork in order to allow my sons to go to Cedar Brook. She replied that she would have to look into the matter, as she wasn’t sure whether there was room in either program for any more students. I explained that I had called ahead and verified that there were still spaces open in both boys’ grade levels. Ms. Madsen replied that she wasn’t sure who I spoke to, but that the person to speak to would have been Ms. Guerra. I explained that I had spoken to Ms. Guerra and made sure that there were open spaces, and that both Ms Guerra and Patty Page in the SBISD office had said that I would need principal approval. Ms. Madsen then said that I would have to fill out transfer forms for both boys, wait for her to verify that there was space and that, even if she signed off on the transfer, the boys could be asked to leave at any time if she determined that the space was needed for another student or students. I told her that I had time to fill out the transfer forms right then and had no problem with doing so. She reiterated that she would still have to make sure there was space and, even if she allowed the transfer, she couldn’t guarantee that the boys wouldn’t be asked to leave at any point during the school year. I told Ms. Madsen that I understood what she was saying, asked where to get transfer forms and when we would know her decision. She replied that she would get back to us when she could and she wasn’t sure when that would be. I told her that I understood that it is a busy time and I would be glad to give her a call tomorrow, since registration was resuming then. Then I thanked her for her time and returned to Ms. Guerra’s desk.

Ms. Guerra already had the forms ready for me, so I sat at the table in the office and filled out transfer forms for both of my sons. I returned the forms to Ms. Guerra, told her that I truly appreciated her help, that I really only wanted an appropriate learning environment for my sons and I was hoping that this would be it. We wished each other a nice day and my children and I left the school.

Footnote: I am of mixed heritage, roughly ¼ Native American, 1/3 Hispanic and ½ Anglo Saxon. I have dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin. My children are blond, blue-eyed and Caucasian. The mistakes were understandable. The attitude wasn’t.

August 26, 2008

I waited most of the morning for a call about the boys’ transfer, then decided that, considering the general unhelpfulness, I had better continue being proactive...however, both Ms. Guerra and Ms. Gaberra (to whom I was referred today) told me that the principal of Cedar Brook, Ms. Madsen, has been too busy to give them any answers. So I called Ms. Patty Page at SBISD and she also was too busy to speak to me. Both locations suggested that I just wait for their response and they would get to it when they could. To both suggestions, I replied that I felt it was very important to get the boys started in school as quickly as possible, so that they didn’t fall behind, and that I would be glad to give them a call back later today, to check up on the situation."