Foreign Aid Pasadena Park Parents Help Create A Foreign Language Program At Grade School

Cara Preuss hands out bingo cards, goading a polite response from each of her young students.

No English allowed.

“Por favor,” she prompts, dangling the card in front of Jessica Medchill.

“Por tafer,” responds 7-year-old Jessica.

Preuss turns to a boy in an orange sweatshirt.

“Porchavor,” says a grinning Nigel Henderson, 6.

In Preuss’ Pasadena Park Elementary classroom, students are encouraged to try these new words, to roll them around in their minds and mouths even while they’re still mastering them.

The Pasadena Park Spanish program includes two teachers, 16 students and endless parent involvement. In fact, it was parents who organized the before-school classes last year.

“I figured I was going to go to the PTO meeting and the program would already be in place,” laughed parent Karen Petit, who now helps coordinate the classes. “Everybody thought it was a great idea, but nobody volunteered.

“It’s important. Kids learn languages easier the earlier they start.”

The kids here range from first to fourth graders, learning beginning and intermediate Spanish taught mostly through games, songs and puppet shows. The goals: to provide the fundamentals of Spanish, and to make sure the kids have fun.

The Pasadena Park program - where parents interview, hire and pay for teachers - is somewhat unique in the Valley. Sunrise Elementary in the Central Valley School District had a similar parent-sponsored program a few years ago, but it folded due to lack of participation.

At the West Valley School District’s Pasadena Park, parents are struggling to avoid a similar fate.

During the first six-week session last year, 48 kids signed up. Just 16 students are enrolled now.

“It’s kind of dwindled, and we’re not sure why,” said Petit. “Maybe parents think their kids aren’t learning fast enough.”

She also speculates that the $20 per-session cost could be a burden for some families, or that parents may have a hard time getting their kids to school an hour early twice a week.

Maintaining the program without burning out has been a challenge for the parents in several ways.

They help plan curriculum and find classroom materials. They aid the teachers during class.

Finding qualified teachers is another difficult task.

Including current teachers Preuss and Nancy Johnson, they’ve hired five instructors at Pasadena Park in the past year. Some, like Preuss, are recent college graduates.

“I’ll bet you by fall, she’ll be snapped up,” said Petit. “We’d love to hang on to them forever, but it’s hard.”

There were similar growing pains at Roosevelt Elementary, one of the South Hill schools on which Pasadena Park parents based their program.

“It’s hard here in Spokane to find really qualified teachers to put in the time we need for the pay we’re able to give them,” said Jan Deleeuw, a former coordinator of the three-year-old Roosevelt program that has at different times offered kids Spanish, French and German.

Deleeuw said she and other Roosevelt parents tap into local colleges to find teachers.

Parent-run foreign language programs are common on the South Hill, including Roosevelt, Wilson and Jefferson elementaries.

At Roosevelt, parents may volunteer as many as 30 hours a week to keep the project going.

“It’s like running a little school,” said Deleeuw.

Roosevelt, too, has seen enrollment fluctuate, from 66 students the first session to 106 students and back to 66.

“It almost seems like a new restaurant,” said Deleeuw. “Everyone wants to go try it. But if it’s not exactly what they expected, they move on to something else.”

But overall the Roosevelt program has flourished, offering student scholarships and semester-long classes.

The key, said Deleeuw is to offer just a few languages, and to offer the ones parents and students show the most interest in.

At Pasadena Park, parents are planning to draw in more families by adding a new language.

According to surveys passed out at the end of each session, parents would most like the option of a sign language class.

Parents also hope eventually to take the program districtwide, and to find grants to help pay for supplies and teacher’s pay.

While parents focus on beefing up enrollment, those families already involved in the program say they like what it offers.

“I wanted her to learn a foreign language, but I didn’t want her to wait like I did until high school,” said Kathleen Beres, whose first-grade daughter Kaitlyn is already in intermediate Spanish.

The mother and daughter quiz each other on Spanish words, counting to 10 together and pointing out objects they can translate from one language to the other.

“I’m learning along with her,” she said.

Amy Scribner can be reached at 459-5439 or by e-mail at amys@spokesman.com.