First bilingual school class to start in Jan.

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK TOWNSHIP — Board of Education members recently approved the opening of a bilingual classroom at Drum Point Elementary School, the first of its kind in the district.

Twenty first- and second-grade students currently enrolled in the school’s English Language Learners (ELL) program will move to the bilingual education classroom on Jan. 2, where they will receive instruction in all subjects in English and Spanish.

“Our enrollment has hit a number that warrants bilingual education,” Superintendent Thomas L. Seidenberger said at the board’s Dec. 13 meeting. “We asked for a waiver from the state Department of Education, but the time has come that we do this.”

The DOE has already identified the primarily Spanish-speaking students who will be in the bilingual classroom, he said.

Beatriz Cruz, one of Drum Point’s two ELL teachers, will be the teacher of the bilingual education students. The school’s other teacher will continue to work with the ELL students in grades three, four and five, Seidenberger said.

“The transition is pretty seamless,” he said. “Right now, we’re able to absorb the cost because we don’t have to add another teacher or classroom.”

There is a possibility of some federal funding available that the district might be eligible for, in order to get the program successfully off the ground, Seidenberger said.

It remains to be seen whether the district will have to create bilingual classrooms at the other grade levels, or whether the district will be able to continue its ELL program at Drum Point, he said.

“We’ve been seeing a steady increase in the numbers of ELL students, so I’m not surprised,” Seidenberger said. “It’s a trend that I don’t see reversing.”

Cruz and Drum Point’s principal, Susan Genco will be meeting with the students’ parents to discuss the program.

The district expanded its ELL program on the elementary level to Lanes Mill Elementary School in September 2005, to relieve overcrowding in the ELL classes at Drum Point.

The expansion of the ELL program to Lanes Mill allowed children who live in the northern section of the township to attend school closer to their homes, instead of having to be bused across town to Drum Point.

Board members voted 7 to 0 to approve the district’s bilingual education program.