DULUTH — Some of the students in the Lowell Elementary-based Nueva Vision Spanish Immersion program may find themselves attending a new school building next school year.
Duluth Public Schools announced Wednesday that the program will be split between Lowell Elementary and Myers-Wilkins Elementary this fall, according to a news release from the district.
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Students in the program who reside in the elementary boundaries of Myers-Wilkins, Stowe, Laura MacArthur, Congdon Park or Lester Park will attend Myers-Wilkins. Students in Lowell, Piedmont, Homecroft or Lakewood boundaries will continue at Lowell.
Why the sudden shift? According to the district, the redistribution is being put into place to help alleviate overcapacity issues at Lowell Elementary, allow new families in the Lowell area the opportunity to attend their home school, reduce traffic congestion, expand program accessibility — particularly for underserved students — and support desegregation efforts at Myers-Wilkins.
Superintendent John Magas pointed out that there have been several new housing developments in the boundary that feeds into Lowell and that there isn't space in the school for students to attend their local elementary.
Lowell currently has a student population of approximately 650 students. The school was originally designed for 500 students, according to a presentation by Brenda Spartz, director of teaching, learning and equity for elementary schools in the district.
The school has gained around 300 students since starting the Spanish immersion program. With the program split, around 150 students in the program would attend Myers-Wilkins, which has a population of 330 this year.
Additionally, the Minnesota Department of Education has identified Myers-Wilkins as a racially identifiable school. As such, the district has created an achievement and integration plan to help integrate diversity into the student population. According to the district's presentation, students at Myers-Wilkins would have combined lunch hours by grade level and combined specialist teacher classes such as music, art and media.
"The last thing we want is for there to be the English students and a silo of Spanish-speaking kids who come from different backgrounds and who aren't being fully integrated," said assistant superintendent Anthony Bonds. "We are fully committed to making this a fully integrated school and not with a little side of Spanish language classes."
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The announcement of the change last week led to some backlash from families and instructors in the programs due to its sudden, top-down nature. A Lowell PTA meeting was held last week, and a family meeting was held Monday evening to help answer more questions and respond to community comments.
Magas apologized for the abrupt nature of the announcement but remained firm that the decision had to be made.
"The reason we wanted to announce things this early was so that we would have time to digest and time to work with you as parents to make sure this isn't something that feels sprung on you, but that we have nine months to prepare for," Magas said. "We want to make sure we have a transition committee and that we're listening to what parents need, to what students need and have that time for preparation."
Top among parent concerns at Monday's meeting was the breakup of students who had been in classes together through kindergarten. Students in the immersion program are encouraged to commit to taking the full five years of language education and not to stray in and out of the program. A request from parents to allow the fourth and fifth grade classes to remain at Lowell didn't yield much traction, but students who want to remain in the same class as their friends by transferring to Myers-Wilkins could have some openings.
"We will have to review that," Bonds said. "There is an inter-district transfer process in place where we could make those decisions."
Bonds noted that he's had to deny many transfers to Lowell because the school is so far overcapacity.
The district planned to discuss the changes again at the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday.
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