STUDENTS BEHIND CAMPUS
As Dual Immersion at PRJUSD looks to expand to 8th grade, some PRHS students and staff worry about the effect on native Spanish speakers.
The current location for the Georgia Brown campus is a neighborhood primarily consisting of a large part of our hispanic population in Paso Robles, providing an opportunity for these students, some of which speak majority Spanish, to continue speaking Spanish in school, and continue to learn in their native language.
Although some express worry that this program might have set them back on their English, and was much more beneficial for their English speaking counterparts.
“Speaking majority Spanish in school kind of enabled me to not learn English, I think” one anonymous student said. “It wasn’t necessary, and certain words and spelling are still hard for me.”
Sophomore Diana Ojeda went to Georgia Brown from TK to fifth grade. At home her family speaks Spanish, but at PRHS she primarily uses English. Sophomore Abraham Zavala went to Georgia Brown Elementary during Kindergarten through fifth. Zavala’s family speaks both languages at home.
Despite these differences, both students agree that during their elementary education years their Spanish skills were higher than their English language. Spanish is the native language for many students at Georgia Brown who come from Hispanic or Latino families.
Others however, think the Dual Immersion helped them both grow in their native language while also gaining necessary academic language in English.
The change also means that the surrounding neighborhood will change. The new location is walkable for field trips to Paso Robles High School allowing Georgia Brown students to easily take advantage of being able to visit for theater productions. The easy accessibility to the High School opens many possibilities for opportunities of collaboration. The new site will also be walking distance from several other elementary schools, offering the ability to travel between schools for sports, special events, or programs.
Jon-Paul Ewing, a science teacher at PRHS, has an eight year old in second grade at Georgia Brown Elementary School. He thinks that this change will be great for the students of Georgia Brown and he is definitely keeping his son at the school, however there are always winners and losers in these types of situations.
Ewing believes that the more time the kids get to be in the program, the better for the kids. The goal is for them to become bilingual, so the more time they get to master that is preferred.
The new location does present transportation problems for the presently enrolled students who are walking distance from the current Georgia Brown site. The future students who will attend Georgia Brown will include a broader range of students within the community due to the lottery system the school district plans to use. This will save the parent tradition of camping overnight and waiting in a long line at the district office in order to get first dibs at the very popular program.
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The purpose of having schools in different neighborhoods is for easier accessibility to everyone. With the Georgia Brown campus moving there will be easier access to students from many neighborhoods , as the location is more centrally located. However, it’s unfortunate that while offering a wider and easier accessibility within the community the site change is displacing students of a population already facing barriers to their education.
At Georgia Brown 80% of students enrolled are minorities, as well as 76.9% are Hispanic or Latino. The Dual Immersion program is for students to become bilingual in both Spanish and English. These students often are introduced to Spanish at home within their families and get exposure in English at school. However, the move of Georgia Brown displaces many students who are already in a more vulnerable position to succeed academically.
The change in location of the elementary school will provide easier availability for students from many neighborhoods due to being in a more central location of our community and the usage of a lottery system for enrollment.
