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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. BY JOHN F. BAILEY JANUARY 15, 2016:

The White Plains City School District has been unable to come to a consensus on how to add State-mandated instruction to English Language Learners.

Dr. Paul Fried, Superintendent of Schools announced Monday evening, the task force reviewing options suggested a year ago to augment English Language Learners if one particular language group exceeds 20% in any one grade, had been unable to choose between expanding Kindergarten in 2016-17  at George Washington and Post Road schools or adding a dual language program in a third school. He said the task force wanted to evaluate it some more and bring in in more stakeholders’ opinions.

Jessica O’Donovan said, this year 157 of approximately 500 Kindergarteners  enrolled are English Language Learners with Spanish their present language. This would mean that by adding a dual language program at a third White Plains Elementary, only 77  or 31% of the 157 Spanish speaking kindergartners  would be served next fall by the new dual language class no matter whether it is added to GW or Post Road or at a third elementary.

The solution presumably will be decided by the task force by January 2017, allowing the district to comply or at least begin to address the burgeoning (at least this year) population of Spanish Language kindergartners beginning in the 2017-2018 year.

The solutions of adding a new dual language to the present two schools or starting it at a third school were on the table at least a year ago, and are nothing new.

Ms. O’Donnell told WPCNR that as teachers retire the district is seeking to hire dual language teachers to fill the expected future English Language Learners demands by the state.

Dr. Fried said the difficult problem is the district has no way of knowing how many Spanish Language speaking kindergartners will be joining the district before they sign up during the school choice period.

The school district can estimate by birth rates, but apparently do not have the information by ethnicity,

The state also demands that parents English Language Learners if their child is in the 20% English Language Learners designation have to have a choice of either dual language instruction for their child or..a self-contained class of English Language Learners. This caviat, Fried said impacted the White Plains school choice program for kindergartners in complicating the choice English Language Learners have in where they go to school. Do they all have to go to either GW or Post Road is just one question that comes to mind.

It’s up to the Task Force.