Duval gains 200 new students with language needs from Puerto Rico, other hurricane-hit areas

In only two months at Greenfield Elementary, Alejandro Ortiz has made a lot of friends and is doing well in his favorite classes, math and computers.

“I don’t want to leave this school; I like it here,” the fifth-grade student said last week.

It’s a far cry from his final weeks at school in Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria hit in September, his family and many others lost electricity.

Alejandro’s family ate canned goods and whatever they could barbecue. His mother, Keity Santana, lost her job as a speech pathologist and stood in long lines for hours to buy groceries.

They heated water on the barbecue pit for baths. Alejandro’s private school reopened but without electricity. “We had to go to school with no lights, ” he said. “Every single window and door was open. Mosquito bites for everyone!”

Alejandro, 10, now attends a Duval school and is one of nearly 9,000 youngsters who came from hurricane-damaged areas and enrolled in Florida schools in recent months. The students and their families often come with extra needs but with little state financial help.

Florida Department of Education officials said that few public schools qualify for supplemental funding for taking in the Puerto Rican students. Districts where enrollment increased five percent or with individual schools that saw a 25 percent increase enrollment could apply for more financial help.

So far no districts have qualified for that money despite the thousands of new students added to their enrollments.

As of Dec. 5, students who left Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands enrolled in 45 of the state’s 67 county districts.

Orange and Osceola counties experienced the biggest new influx: Orange added nearly 2,400 students and Osceola more than 1,300.

Duval County schools are still enrolling new students, district officials said.

As of Dec. 5, Duval enrolled 210 hurricane arrivals from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, and from Georgia, Texas and other Florida counties.

MORE THAN 700 FAMILIES HERE

More hurricane arrivals are coming but no one knows how many, said Nancy Quinones, president of the Puerto Rican and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Jacksonville, part of a network of similar chambers of commerce around the state.

“When they ask me about statistics I start laughing,” she said. “The last time we checked there were 700 and something families who have arrived in Jacksonville. … Some of the people that are here, they haven’t enrolled their kids [in schools] yet.”

Many arrive with extra needs, district officials said.

For instance, most of these new students don’t speak or understand English well, said Ingrid Carias, Duval’s Director of ESOL and World Languages. (ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages.)

Spanish is their language at home, and about three quarters of these students read and speak only in Spanish, Carias said. About a quarter have varying levels of English exposure, including some like Alejandro, who are bilingual because their school or parents taught them English.

In some cases, kindergarten and first-grade students don’t know how to read or write in Spanish, much less English, she added.

So far, out of the 150 or so English-language learners recently enrolled in Duval schools from hurricane areas, 76 attend elementary schools, 44 are in middle schools and 33 went to Duval high schools, Carias said. They have enrolled everywhere, she said, not just in the district’s most diverse schools, such as Englewood High, which has 450 English-language learners who speak 46 languages.

Most new students moved in with relatives already in Jacksonville and enrolled in neighborhood schools, she said. “A lot of schools are not used to having English-language learners. Their principals are asking, ‘What do we do?’ ”

HELP AT SOME SCHOOLS

The district monitors weekly where they enroll, she said. When a school adds 15 Spanish-speakers, the district assigns a Spanish-speaking paraprofessional to the school. Those teachers aides are trained and equipped with a special curriculum and lesson binders, emphasizing oral language and listening skills, as well as reading and writing in English.

“We recommend the assistant principals create an assistance schedule, so the paraprofessional is working with the [new] kids during their reading block” of the school day, she said.

Paraprofessionals also support teachers of other subjects, including math, science, social students and some computer or career classes, she said.

“Paraprofessionals are able to come to a class to help these students feel validated,” Carias said. “Students need to feel that we believe in them and that they can be successful. A lot of times teachers are overwhelmed. Sometimes they say, ‘I have 30 kids; which ones do I concentrate on?’ ”

Demand for paraprofessionals is up.

Carias has three openings for Spanish speaking paraprofessionals at Sandalwood, Terry Parker and West Side high schools.

In addition to special staff, elementary schools also hook up the new arrivals to Imagine Learning on computers, to listen and learn English and phonics individually, Carias said. Students in middle and high school use Rosetta Stone, the popular language program.

There also are English language arts “shelter” classes at six high schools but, Carias said, the schools try to ensure students learn much of the same content as the other students. For instance, the Spanish-speaking ninth-graders might read a version of “Romeo and Juliet” adapted for English language learners, Carias said.

“The kids are smart,” she said. “It’s just that it’s a new language.”

Hind Chahed, a language coach who speaks four languages and works part time at Englewood High, said students begin picking up the language in a few months. “After three months you see them blooming like flowers,” she said.

Some students can’t learn the language fast enough.

High school seniors from Puerto Rico face a fast deadline because Florida’s laws require students to pass the 10th grade Florida Standards Assessments for English and the algebra end-of-course exam to be eligible for a diploma. All tests are given in English.

The reading test is too challenging for students just learning a language, Carias said, but without that score students would only qualify for a certificate of completion. Most Florida colleges and some employers don’t accept certificates of completion.

CHANGES TOUGH ON SENIORS

Counting recent arrivals, Carias said there are 67 seniors she worries about being able to graduate on time because of language difficulties. Her team of specialists are each taking five students to work with intensely, so they’ll be ready for graduation tests and college entrance exams.

“It breaks your heart to see a kid who in 12th grade had a high GPA [in their old school], some 3.5 or 3.7, and they’ll only get a certificate that says they attended high school [in Florida],” Carias said. “Research says it takes seven years to be fluent in another language.”

Some districts complained to the state. Education Commissioner Pam Stewart recently reached an agreement with her counterpart in Puerto Rico to issue Puerto Rican diplomas for the seniors who are ineligible for a Florida diploma.

In the other grade levels, new students who don’t speak English won’t have to take Florida’s annual tests but will take a different one. Their scores won’t count toward school grades the state issues this year, an education spokeswoman said. State grades affect public schools’ image, state sanctions and eligibility for money awards.

On other financial issues, Stewart gave little ground to districts seeking money to serve the new arrivals.

Most of the newest students arrived after official state attendance counts in October, so they were not factored into the state’s per-pupil funding formulas. Florida’s districts receive about $7,200 per student, including $5,400 per student in “base funding” from the state, as well as federal and local funds.

In Duval’s case, that means the district is out about $1.4 million.

Stewart said that only districts that added 5 percent or more onto their total enrollment or individual schools which added 25 percent with hurricane newcomers would qualify for supplemental funds. A district like Duval would need to add 6,400 new students to its 128,000 to qualify.

Later in the fiscal year, districts likely will receive partial funding for the new students, if they are still enrolled during the February attendance count, district officials said.

The state does pay districts more per student in English as a second language programs, a state spokeswoman said.

Gov. Rick Scott included $12 million in the Securing Florida’s Future budget to establish the English language learners summer academics program for students in grades 4-8. The program emphasis will be on reading improvements and making sure students displaced by Hurricane Maria have access to summer academies.

COST HARD TO ASSESS

It’s hard to tell how much services to the newly enrolled students will cost Duval schools. Adding to the costs are services provided to new students’ parents, who also usually don’t speak English.

Hind said such services are needed to help families get on their feet and hasten student progress.

Hind runs Duval’s Center for Language and Culture, a portable school room that looks like a colorful computer lab on Kings Trail Elementary’s campus. The center isn’t just for Spanish-speakers; a wide variety of immigrants take advantage of its free English classes, Rosetta Stone software, homework help, story time, women’s meetings, and public library and Headstart services.

On a recent Monday morning, Hind had a full house of two dozen adults from Puerto Rico, Lebanon, Syria, the Congo, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Bosnia and Afghanistan. They sat in circles, trying to discuss in English their plans for the holidays, driving laws and taking trips.

Keity Santana, Alejandro’s mother, was in one group.

Even though Santana is a licensed speech pathologist — which is in high demand in Florida schools — she doesn’t feel confident enough in her command of English to continue that work in Jacksonville. She figures she’ll find an entry-level job.

“I’m very independent because I’ve had a good job,” she said. “Our family only needs time. I can become fluent and get a job. I think it will be fine.”

Santana likes Jacksonville, she said, and expects her husband to join them next year.

“But I’m going to miss everyone,” Alejandro said, burying his head in her shirt. “What about the house? What about our real house?”

Santana said she understands her son’s sadness. She knows only a few people in Jacksonville, mostly her sister’s small group of friends.

“We exchange ideas and memories of the island,” she said.

“Sometimes you feel lost here, with new neighbors and friends. But it’s a great school and he has a special teacher.”

Denise Smith Amos: (904) 359-4083