CEDAR PARK—The Leander Independent School District Board of Trustees discussed the district English Language Learners Program and said goodbye to Ron LaFevers during its regular meeting Dec. 17.
“Thank you on behalf of the kids of this district,” Superintendent Bret Champion said to LaFevers during the reception before the meeting. “Your legacy will be long remembered.”
People from around the district—including former Superintendent Tom Glenn—came out to see LaFevers, who is retiring after 28 years with the district.
“What we say and what we do, it matches up,” LaFevers said. “We care about kids in this district.”
LaFevers was the senior executive director of school improvement at LISD for the past year and a half, and was the principal of Cedar Park High School before that.
During the meeting, Tina Dosier, director of the ELL department, gave a brief presentation about the district’s ELL program.
“As the district has seen such enormous growth, this population has seen enormous growth,” Kendra Schaffer, director of K-12 programs for the district, said, referring to children who do not speak English. Champion said in the last few years, the total student population has grown 45 percent in LISD. The ELL population grew 91 percent in the same time frame.
LISD students speak dozens of languages, but most ELL students speak one of four languages: Spanish (900 students), Vietnamese (163 students), Korean (125) and Mandarin Chinese (57 students).
This year, the district began a dual language program for Spanish speaking students, which aims at teaching children fluency in both their native language and English.
“With kids entering middle school as bilingual and biliterate, they enter with the tools to be successful,” Dosier said. She said student who complete a dual-language model have higher graduation rates than students who complete a transitional model, which aims to replace the child’s first language with English.
The district currently has four campuses offering the dual language program, but students from anywhere in the district are allowed to transfer to one of those campuses.
Dosier said the district also considered a two-way dual language program, in which students who speak English are mixed with students who speak Spanish. Those classes are taught 50 percent in English and 50 percent in Spanish, with a goal of all students being fluent and literate in both languages. However, Dosier said they were advised to begin with a one-way model and eventually transition to the two-way model.
“There’s definitely interest,” she said.
In addition, Dosier said the district is on the verge of creating a dual language Vietnamese program. She said the state mandates a district do so once it has 21 students in any grade level who speak a language. LISD crossed that threshold this year, she said.
One of the biggest barriers to creating that program, she said, was finding teachers fluent in both languages and getting the parents involved in the process.
“We truly believe that community and parent involvement is the strength of the program,” she said.
Trustee Russell Bundy said he was excited to see the district exploring different options for bilingual education.
“I think we’re way ahead of the game on this,” he said. “This is going to get bigger.”
In other business, Jimmy Disler, executive director of capital improvements, presented the board with options for moving the scoreboard on the Rouse High School baseball and softball fields.
He said the scoreboard, located in centerfield, causes lights to shine in the catcher’s eyes, which has raised safety concerns.
“We’re going to go ahead and get it moved over the next five weeks before baseball season,” he said. The cost for both scoreboards will be approximately $20,000.
Dosier said they did not foresee the problem when the fields were constructed.
“When you look at what’s out there, there’s no design standards,” he said.