Recurring discussion: Carey’s ESL program

For the second time in the past two months, parents came to the microphone at the Sewanhaka High School District’s Board of Education meeting to publicly disparage the district’s English as a Second Language program. The program is currently housed in only one school within the five-school district — the H. Frank Carey High School — and some parents within the district believe it has created an unsafe environment at Carey.

At the district’s regular Board of Education meeting in February, Cammi Spillane, a mother in the district, publicly spoke about her disapproval of the district’s ESL program, in which nearly 180 students participate. Spillane said she believes the program has caused congested traffic near the school, over-crowding in the school’s cafeteria and hallway, and an unsafe environment at Carey.

“This excess is taking a toll on our schools, streets and community,” Spillane said in February. “There are an additional 200 students eligible to compete for spots on any team or squad, adding to wear and tear on our technology and equipment, and with the extra cars and buses that transport these additional 200 students, it most certainly has an effect on traffic and road wear … please consider if each school was responsible for teaching ESL students in their own communities.”

Other concerned parents at the meeting in February agreed that the ESL program created an unsafe environment at Carey, and Jean Fichtl, Sewanhaka’s BOE president, said the district would begin discussing and investigating the program to see whether any changes should be made. At the district’s more recent regular Board of Education meeting, held on March 22, Spillane publicly asked the BOE if it had made any decisions about the district’s ESL program.

Warren Meierdiercks, the district’s superintendent, said the district’s BOE members took time in February and March to discuss the ESL program and investigate its safety, and decided it should continue as normal. Meierdiercks explained that having all of the district’s ESL students in one school greatly benefits their education, and there is no evidence that the program has caused the Carey High School to be less safe. “I found more over-crowding in Floral Park than at Carey. We don’t have any plan to move the program,” he said.

Meierdiercks also said the district’s ESL program has not caused traffic congestion in the school district. He explained that the only bus route Carey’s route would interfere with is the Washington Street School, at 760 Washington St. in Franklin Square, but the routes do not conflict because the schools begin at different times. Carey begins its school day at 8 a.m., and drop off students at 7:45 a.m.; the elementary school begins its day at 8:45 a.m., he said. Additionally, he said that spreading the ESL program out into each of the district’s five schools would be very costly, since it would require double the number of ESL teachers the district currently employs.

Valerie Angelillo, Carey’s principal, agreed. “The students are not moving through the same courses, or at the same levels,” Angelillo explained. However, after hearing Meierdiercks’ and Angelillo’s reasons for the district’s decision to keep its ESL program as is, other parents spoke out against the program.

Spillane said she was disappointed by the BOE’s decision. “We are all positive contributors to Franklin Square — how could we not be heard?” she said at last week’s meeting. “I hope that maybe in the near future, the board members from the other schools could have an impact and make a push to host this program in their own school. After all, it is the fair thing to do.”

Dana DeLeo, a mother who lives in the district, said she believes ESL students would fit in better if they attended the school that corresponded with their own address. “Being an individual and not being able to speak the same language, they would be way more comfortable going to school with ‘Joe Schmoe’ from across the street … rather than be bused to a completely other school,” DeLeo said. “We have 10 teachers teaching the program at Carey. Why can’t it just be separated so that we don’t have 180 (extra) kids in the school?”

Carol Grassi, a mother from the school district, also spoke publicly, saying that her daughter, who attends Carey, has been teased by ESL students. The ESL students have thrown crumpled paper balls at her daughter, and made inappropriate comments, in Spanish, about her, Grassi said.

“If there were any issues going on with the youngsters in any of the schools, we need to be aware of the problem,” Meierdiercks said, adding that although the district will not make any changes to its ESL program at this time, it will continue monitoring it.

Comments about this story? JNash@liherald.com.