School Board candidates discuss diversity and collaboration in education at Centro Hispano

Candidates for the Madison School Board race met Saturday, March 23 at the Centro Hispano to discuss K -12 education with the Latin American community.

Mural inside the Centro HispanoCurrent School Board President James Howard and his opponent for seat four Greg Packnett, candidates for seat three Dean Loumos and Wayne Strong, and the sole candidate for seat five, TJ Mertz, attended.

The candidates sat down with a small group of reporters and Centro Hispano leaders to discuss issues such as diversity in district faculty, programs for Latin American students and families, and the importance of continued collaboration between community organizations, such as Centro Hispano, and the School Board.

Sal Carranza, senior academic planner for the UW System Administration and co-founder and chair of the Latino Education Council of Dane County, moderated the discussion.

“The fact of the matter is language is at the core of the issue … when you talk about the attainment of Spanish-speaking individuals,” Howard said.

Of the main issues discussed, the candidates all agreed on the importance of increasing programs that help students of Latin-American descent succeed in the Madison public schools.  All the candidates spoke in support of continuing programs such as the Dual-Language Immersion (DLI) program ending at Chavez Elementary School.

The DLI program blends multilingual education, teaching children in two languages; teachers teach 90 percent of a class in Spanish and 10 percent in English. The School Board voted to discontinue the program at Chavez because of limited interest from Spanish-speaking families.

Strong stressed that programs like these are necessary to decrease the achievement gap.

“I think we need to continue the expansion of these programs because clearly language is a major issue,” Strong said. “In order for us to get at the achievement gap, we have to look at the students that the gap really affects, and that’s black and brown students. So expansion of dual-language immersion programs are critical for our Latino students so they see themselves in the culture.”

All the candidates expressed a desire to increase the diversity of the teaching and support staff.  The necessity for bilingual resource specialists among teachers and psychological and social services staff is increasing in the Latin American community. Bilingual resource specialists work closely with teachers and other staff as liaisons between the Madison Metropolitan School District and parents of English Language Learners in school-related matters.

Mertz expressed his desire to help advocate for funding for English as a Second Language programs.

“[Bilingual resource specialists] are a key and the good ones are worth their weight in gold,” Mertz said. “And there are many, many good ones in our schools. And they are the key to the students’ success and family involvement.”

Carranza ended the forum by asking the candidates to support immigration reform for the sake of all the children of immigrant families.

“We ask you that you are an advocate to make a statement that you stand for comprehensive immigration reform, that you are not allowing the schools any program that is rejecting any of our kids because of their immigration status,” Carranza said. “If you are elected to the Board, keep in mind these families, keep in mind these kids.”

 School Board elections are Tuesday, April 2.