School board opts for immersion

ST. GEORGE — Students at Dixie Downs Elementary School entering kindergarten and first grade next year will be learning Spanish right alongside their lessons in English.

Following a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of dual immersion, members of the Washington County School Board voted 6-1 to go ahead with the controversial program.

"If this were a vote for a gifted/talented program, it would be a grand slam" said board member Craig Seegmiller. "We started this discussion because we need to make Spanish language-speaking students productive Americans speaking English. We're not doing this to teach English speakers Spanish."

Cynthia Birch said she is "adamantly opposed" to starting the program at Dixie Downs.

"There is no hard data to support dual immersion, no actual test scores from other programs in Utah," she told the board during the public comment period. "We are not interested in studies, theories, blanket statements and those lovely words in the district brochure. We expect this decision to be made on hard data."

Dixie Downs Principal Dale Porter said the idea behind a dual immersion program is to meld two groups of people speaking two different languages so that both groups benefit.

"When you put them together they become fluent in both languages," Porter said. "We're not dumbing down our kids, we're raising the stakes. We're asking for greater parent involvement. Some say we shouldn't implement this at Dixie Downs, that we should do it with a more advantaged school. But who needs it the most?"

Dixie Downs Elementary is one of the smaller, older schools in the district, with 550 students and a higher percentage of them coming from Spanish-speaking households.

"To ignore those kids is not OK," Porter said. "We discussed doing this for a year. There is a momentum. We're ready to go, we want to do it. Yes, we have a high mobility rate but that's true of Title 1 schools everywhere. We think dual immersion will help solve some of those problems."

The Spanish/English immersion program will also extend into music, art, in the gym, at the playground and during assemblies. Bilingual teachers have already been hired in anticipation of starting the program, he added.