The site of Bradley Gardens Elementary School of the Bridgewater-Raritan School District, where some ESL students will go if the proposed plan passes.SOMERSET — Parents in the Bridgewater-Raritan school district can weigh in on a plan this week to cluster 112 grade-schoolers who are learning English into a local primary school.
They probably won’t give it a warm response.
Already the proposal, a major overhaul of the district’s English as a Second Language program, has stirred fierce opposition from some parents who fear it will lead to packed classrooms and under served students at Bradley Gardens school in Bridgewater.
Those reasons have led many to oppose a district plan to set up ESL magnet programs at Bradley Gardens and Hillside schools. Bradley Gardens, where there are 325 students, would see its enrollment rise by roughly a third.
"Every child has a right to learn," said Felicia Walsh, co-president of the Parent-Teacher Organization. "It’s just the impact to one school in one fell swoop, it’s huge."
The proposal is scheduled to be presented on Wednesday and Thursday.
The proposal was developed to boost the academic achievement of grade-school students who are still learning English. According to Cheryl Dyer, the district’s assistant superintendent, these students have struggled in their language and math NJ ASK exam scores.
To address those problems, the district proposed sending 112 ESL students, from Kindergarten to fourth grade, to Bradley Gardens. ESL students in the fifth and sixth grades — 12 students — would be sent to Hillside School.
The current system, in which ESL teachers drive from school to school, means instruction time is lost while instructors are on the road, Dyer said.
"We do think a more efficient model … will make a difference here," she said.
If district officials stand pat, they would have to hire one more ESL teacher at a cost of about $90,000 in annual salary and benefits. The magnet program, instead, essentially would boost costs by only $55,000.
Bridgewater-Raritan administrators believe the results will far surpass those savings.
They pointed to the success reported by the Roselle School District, where Harrison Elementary School is held as a model for these magnet schools.
There are 145 students in Harrison’s ESL magnet program, said Roselle ESL supervisor Daryl Wainer, with nearly 40 percent of students in the district speaking another language at home.
Wainer credited the program for improved results among ESL students. In 2009, 67 percent of former ESL students passed the state language tests and 73 percent passed the math portion.
Howell Township, where there are 120 ESL students between kindergarten and eighth grade, has had ESL magnet schools for more than 15 years. Jacqueline Moore, who oversees the ESL programs there, said Howell Township students typically become academically proficient in English in less than five years.
The magnet school program also paved the way for improved training of ESL faculty.
"It works well with our students and population," Moore said.
Moore. however, warned that other districts might not see similar results. The effectiveness of the magnet schools is dependent on the training of teachers and the locations and characteristics of the schools, she said.
According to Walsh, a chief concern about the Bridgewater-Raritan proposal has to do with the size of Bradley Gardens. She said the school is too compact to absorb the student increase.
And that leads to logistical problems, such as issues with already-lengthy lunch lines, Walsh said.
More than three-quarters of the ESL students would come from Adamsville, Milltown and John F. Kennedy primary schools.
Done right, magnet schools have shown they can provide a sizable boost in academic achievement for students struggling with English, said Judie Haynes, president of the New Jersey Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/New Jersey Bilingual Educators.
But some districts might find it’s simply not a good fit, she said.
"It’s very important that districts explore all the possibilities available," Haynes said.