ESL classes on chopping block

Newport-Mesa Unified School District is expected to drop English as a Second Language classes and slash adult education classes under a package of proposed budgetary cuts.

Doing away with ESL classes entirely and the bulk of adult education classes likely will affect many on the district’s Costa Mesa side, where these programs are concentrated. For one, dropping the ESL program would deal a blow to hundreds of Spanish-speaking parents who take those classes to lead by example or simply to be able to talk to their children in English.

Educators say ESL classes are crucial because parents of students whose mother tongue is Spanish serve as a bridge to their children’s prospects for learning in the classroom where English is the language of instruction.

Kimberly Claytor, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, said the elimination of the ESL classes could prove detrimental to student achievement in minority circles because the parents often are “the first line of help.”

“If the parents don’t learn English, then it can have effects on the household,” Claytor said. “The parents are so often the starting point when it comes to educating the children.”

Nearly 42% of the 21,507 students — or slightly more than 9,000 — who attend district schools are Latino, according to state education data from the 2008-09 school year.

The vast majority of them live in Costa Mesa and attend Costa Mesa schools. Students whose primary language is Spanish comprise 93.6% of the district’s English learner population, state data show.

By the end of June, a 40-person staff at the district’s Adult Education Program will be reduced to a handful of teachers at the Barbot Educational Support Services and Teaching Center, at 2045 Meyer Place in Costa Mesa.

The Work Force Readiness Program, which helps students and adults prepare for careers, also will be eliminated, leaving the Adult Education Program with only a “bare bones” version of a High School Diploma Program. That program helps students who are having a hard time academically.

According to Martha Rankin, lead administrator of the Adult Education Program, more than 5,000 students pass through the halls of adult education each year, but that number now will be reduced significantly.

“This is going to be a big loss to the community and the district,” she said.

The school district, however, has no choice but to make the cuts, according to administrators.

The state has stripped the district of $13.5 million, leaving the administration with no alternative but to cut certain programs and lay off 80 teachers, many of them at the elementary schools and fresh out of college. On Tuesday, the district’s board of education approved the package of proposed cuts, which could see more than 100 full-time teaching and non-teaching jobs eliminated.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Orange County Education Coalition met at Orange Coast College to finalize its plans on how to oppose the state’s cuts.

Hundreds of teachers and educators showed up, and the consensus was that everybody should wear blue to schools across the state March 4, dubbed “The Day of Action,” Claytor said.

“We’re ‘blue’ about public education. The state is taking our money away,” she said, adding that education isn’t the only service that’s being devastated by the state’s fiscal crisis.

Public services are being “wiped out” as well, she said, adding that “the poor and the elderly are taking the hardest hits.”