Posted: 6/4/03

Spanish immersion parents seek charter school

Joe Drennan
Staff Writer

A small group of interested community members gathered at Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center in Wyoming to hear a presentation about the Lakes International Language Academy.

LILA is trying to open a Spanish immersion charter school in the Wyoming/Forest Lake area in the fall of 2004. The purpose of the meeting was to engage members of the community with the idea of an immersion school as an alternative choice to the existing public schools.

The representatives from LILA explained what a charter school is, what language immersion is, and why they thought it was important to have such a school in the area.

LILA Board co-chair Shannon Peterson explained that a charter school is not a private school, but a public school that offers an alternative style of learning than other traditional public schools.

Peterson went on to add that not all charter schools focus on teaching a second language, but instead use different style of teaching. She noted one school that uses a hands-on approach. Peterson explained that when one class was studying Galilao, they built telescopes the same way Galilao did and then implemented the science and math behind using a telescope. She went on to describe another school that combines grades so that the students can learn to interact better with kids of different ages.

Peterson and board co-chair Claudia Lee explained how they would teach Spanish using language immersion. They said that Spanish would be the primary language in the classroom. Teachers would speak primarily Spanish while relying heavily on the use of hand gestures and visual aids along with hands-on activities.

ìWe donít want Spanish at the expense of English and vice versa,î Peterson said.

Lee noted that traditional subjects such as math, science, reading, social studies, and writing would be taught in Spanish, but the students would still have an intense English curriculum

When asked if there was any evidence that immersion was effective, Perterson said, ìImmersion students did better in almost every case (on standardized testing) compared to the rest of the district.î

Lee said, ìThese kids can have full conversations (in Spanish).î when she talked of one parentís remark about their own child who attends a Spanish immersion school.

Getting Started

The other topic of the night was how LILA is going about starting the school.

The group said that any charter school needs to have a sponsor who oversees the school to see that they are staying true to their mission statement and monitor financial obligations of a school. Sponsors are typically school districts, colleges and universities, and now non-profit groups.

ìWe are looking for a sponsor with a similar goal as ours,î Peterson said.

Currently LILA is not only looking for a sponsor, but also for community support in the terms of time, expertise, banking and legal advice, marketing, and in purchasing and/or leasing of real estate.

Lee and Peterson both commented they are aware that with starting a new school there is a good possibility the location of the school may move a time or two until enrollment is full.

ìWe are hoping to have K through 4th when we start because you need more students to get more funding,î Lee said.

The immersion process would start in the K-1 classes, but realizing that it would be harder to teach the older student in a Spanish immersion setting. LILA members said that the second through fourth grade students would be introduced to Spanish while being taught in English.

Each year, a new class would be added until the whole school was learning in Spanish. Lee explained that after the first year you cannot let new students into a class because they would not be on the same page as the other students.

ìThe world is getting smaller and we want to give our children a gift to get ahead,î Melissa Martyr-Wagner.

There is currently one charter school in the Forest Lake school district, North Lakes Academy. North Lakes is a middle school for grades 6-7 and is finishing its fourth year.

North Lakes director Jackie Saunders says that what sets North Lakes Academy apart from other charter schools is that they, ìwill provide an academically rigorous liberal arts education for middle school students.î

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