Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2008

Some kindergarteners at the brand-new Liberty Elementary School signed up for the new Spanish immersion track. (Photo: Nema Brewer-Candy)

More Fayette County children will be bilingual thanks to the expansion of Spanish immersion tracks this fall. Some kindergarteners at Russell Cave Elementary and the new Liberty Elementary will join those at Maxwell, a magnet school, in stretching their potential.

“Kids just pick up the second language when you start that early,” said Jack Hayes, the school district’s director of student achievement. “They’ll be proficient in two languages when they graduate from high school. … We just have to have bilingual kids in the 21st century. Parents know that, and they want that for their kids.”

At Liberty Elementary, a neighborhood school, parents were given the option of enrolling their child in the Spanish immersion strand or in regular kindergarten. At Russell Cave, which has a high percentage of Hispanic students, kids will follow a dual-immersion track.

“They’re (already) going to learn from one another, using the language in the cafeteria and on the playground,” said Alicia Vinson, the district’s world languages specialist. “The kids become the language models, rather than just the teacher.”

At Maxwell, all students in grades K-5 participate in an immersion program, spending half the day taking classes such as math and science in Spanish and half in English. Interested students can then continue in Spanish immersion at Bryan Station middle and high schools.

The new immersion strands will help ease the waiting list at Maxwell, which can accept only about 100 kindergarten students each year. Some of those families now can apply for out-of-area placement at Russell Cave; a few who live in the Liberty area can send their kids to that brand-new school.

Fayette County Schools Superintendent Stu Silberman credited school board member Amanda Ferguson with the idea to expand the district’s foreign language offerings by adding the immersion “strands” at other elementary schools.

“It just makes so much sense,” he said. “It’s a way of making this tremendous opportunity available to other kids at no additional cost. I’m thrilled that more and more of our students will grow up learning two languages. It’s exactly the direction we need to be moving toward as we prepare our graduates to compete globally.”

The district hopes to extend language immersion tracks to even more schools in upcoming years.

Vinson cited the cognitive, academic and attitudinal benefits of acquiring a second language and noted that kids learn better when relevant content, such as their regular school material, is communicated.

“You can’t teach language without the culture,” she added. “They come together.”

Leaders from Liberty and Russell Cave met with interested families at the end of May, offering perspectives from administrators, students and parents. The two schools began with kindergarten classes this year and will then introduce the immersion program in higher grades as those children move up.

Betsy Rutherford, principal at Russell Cave, said the reaction of parents has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We’re so excited about this because our students need this. They need to practice the language,” she said. “We’ve embraced it, and we’re ready to go. We believe it’s the best thing for our population and for our kids.”