Thread: Huntsville, AL: City’s Hispanic students climb

City’s Hispanic students climb
Sunday, July 20, 2008
By CHALLEN STEPHENS
Times Staff Writer challen.stephens@htimes.com


Number has doubled in the last five years, most are in southwest

Last winter Valerie Fulghum ordered an oversized, papier-mch valentine, stuffed it with more toys than candy for her fourth-grade class and hung it from a tree behind the school.

"Every party now we have pinatas," said Fulghum, who teaches at McDonnell Elementary School in southwest Huntsville. "Valentine's Day, Christmas, birthdays, any celebration."

The number of Hispanic students in Huntsville City Schools has doubled in five years to reach 1,143. However, the sudden growth has mostly been clustered in southwest Huntsville, with populations doubling and tripling over the last few years in the schools that feed into Butler High School.

Last year more than a third of the students at McDonnell were Hispanic, as were a quarter of the students at Ridgecrest Elementary. The numbers have been steadily increasing at University Place, Whitesburg and Morris elementary schools. More than half of the new students require extra lessons to learn English.

"What's bringing them to Huntsville are the labor type jobs, construction, landscaping," said Ruben Flores, who has been reaching out to the new children through the Boys & Girls Club chapter at McDonnell Elementary. "They're learning English, but they speak Spanish in the home."

Most school systems south of Birmingham aren't seeing the increase in Hispanic students. But in North Alabama, Huntsville schools are only the latest to face a growing number of students who don't speak English when they enroll.

While some local politicians and anti-immigration groups contend Huntsville is turning a blind eye toward illegal immigration, school officials say they are adjusting lessons and seeking more bilingual teachers to meet the shifting population.

"We don't even look for whether they are legal or illegal," said city school board member Topper Birney. "That's not our job. Our job is to educate."

Here to stay

The Pelayos were selling tacos in Seattle when a friend from Albertville told them about North Alabama. There's a growing number of Latinos, the friend said, but not too many businesses.

Two years ago, the Pelayos built a permanent garage for their lunch truck, Taqueria El Cazador, just a few blocks from McDonnell Elementary. They park another truck near Governors Drive and plan to open a permanent restaurant on South Memorial Parkway.

"There are tons of Latinos in L.A.," said 18-year-old Adiel Pelayo, who grew up in Oakland, "but tons of competition."

Adiel said he and his father, Filiberto Pelayo, now work every day from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. And here, at the intersection of Drake Avenue and Triana Boulevard, said Adiel, about three quarters of the customers for the $5 lunches are Latino.

The recent arrivals have yet to reach the suburbs of Huntsville. Less than 2 percent of students in Madison County Schools were Hispanic last year, and Madison City Schools report more Asian than Hispanic students.

Pelayo said he believes most were lured to southwest Huntsville by the trailer parks and inexpensive housing. Adiel, who spent a year at Grissom High, said the schools need to make an effort to teach the new arrivals English.

"I think they should do something because we're going to stay here," he said, "and if we get ignored it's going to hurt the U.S. economy. That's just my opinion."

Not in South Alabama

In North Alabama, Latinos are filling otherwise dwindling schools and reviving main streets from Athens to Collinsville.

In Albertville, a third of the students are Hispanic. In Athens City Schools, 12 percent of students are Hispanic, up from 8 percent five years ago. Marshall County Schools are 10 percent Hispanic; Boaz, 8 percent; Limestone County, 5 percent; DeKalb County ,18 percent.

"We make an effort, when we have positions open, to look for bilingual folks and folks who can relate to students," said Dr. Sam Houston, superintendent of Decatur City Schools.

In Decatur, 14 percent of the students are Hispanic, up from 8 percent five years ago.

However, the new arrivals have not moved to Scottsboro and Jackson County. And large numbers of students haven't reached the schools of south Alabama.

In Montgomery County Schools, just 2 percent of the students were Hispanic last year. The same goes for Birmingham, Auburn, Opelika, Dothan and Tuscaloosa.

In Mobile, about 1 percent of the students were Hispanic last year. Selma had just one Hispanic student. So did Perry County. Opp had three.

Huntsville's Latin quarter

In Huntsville, new groceries, beauty shops, taquerias and even a nightclub dot the streets west of Memorial Parkway, from Governors Drive to Airport Road. The signs read: La Frontera. Jazmin. La Bomba. Mi Encanto. Tienda Mexicana.

Employees at La Favorita on Bob Wallace say they've been open five years now. The owner of a new tortilleria off Triana Boulevard took a break from laying tile last week to say, through a translator, that he will open in three or four weeks.

At El Cazador, the Pelayos say a Latino businessman recently bought the laundromat next door.

Councilman Bill Kling, who represents much of the 35805 Zip code where the businesses are, said the rapid changes have led to countless complaints, about everything from public singing to driving without tags.

"Most of what I'm hearing seems to be negative. But our society seems to be going that direction," said Kling. "The corner of Drake Avenue and Triana Boulevard has almost become multilingual."

Not enough translators

The Huntsville school system is now training teachers from McDonnell and University Place elementary schools to include more visual aides, to stick to a routine and to rely on repetition to help those students who aren't yet fluent in English.

However, teachers don't conduct class in Spanish.

"This is not a bilingual program. We don't have any bilingual programs," said Ann Marie Batista, who oversees English as a Second Language for all Huntsville schools.

In fact, Huntsville has only three people on staff who are officially listed as translators, said Batista. Instead, Stone Middle relies on a security guard. McDonnell relies on the director of the Boys & Girls Club. Batista said volunteers are welcome.

Tina Greer, the principal at Morris Elementary on Bob Wallace Avenue, said she turns to the list in the front office. "We have parents that speak both languages. And we have their phone numbers," she said. "At school, we use students."

Welcome at McDonnell

At the edge of Redstone Arsenal, where older ranch homes dead-end in cotton fields, Ruben Flores translates for the teachers and parents of McDonnell Elementary.

In 2002, McDonnell had just 17 Hispanic students. By last school year that number had leapt to 129, or 32 percent of the children.

Some are fluent in English. But 84 of the Hispanic children at McDonnell attended special lessons two or three times a week to help them learn English. The same number required special lessons at Ridgecrest Elementary.

Many of the new parents work at steakhouses and diners, work in construction, painting and hanging drywall, said Flores. He said, when contacted by the school, they often become involved, bringing food and coming straight from work to PTA events.

"They're finding ways to stay," said Flores. "The only time I've known families to leave is when the type of job they are doing causes them to relocate."

Flores said the community has welcomed the new children. Wal-Mart donates bikes, a Burger King manager provides soccer tickets, a local pastor is learning Spanish, a police officer volunteers with the kids.

Meanwhile, the Boys & Girls Club has planted flowers and painted parts of the school. The club emphasizes citizenship, but here the children also exchange lessons in Spanish and English.

"They are teaching each other. That gives the Hispanic child ownership," said Flores, who is mindful of the self-confidence of each child. "We want this young person to be a productive citizen."

Opposition grows

In late 2007, the border-watching Minutemen Civil Defense Corps opened a chapter in North Alabama based in Athens.

Members, who include residents of Huntsville, complain that illegal immigrants unfairly burden public schools and hospitals.

"By the time you get to Drake Avenue it looks like you are in Little Mexico," said Jim Brown, a 70-year-old real estate agent who rents and lives in the southwest neighborhood. He said he once had a sign in his yard that read "Stop the Invasion."

During public debates this spring, proponents have argued that some businesses, from home construction to chicken processing, would collapse without hard-working immigrants willing to take low-paying jobs.

"They may be the most upstanding people in the world south of the border," said Brown, who recently applied to join the Minutemen, "but when they cross the border illegally they cease to be good people.

"Nobody has a problem with legal immigration."

Brown, who said he has occasionally called the police to complain about Hispanic neighbors, argues the city police need to be free to enforce federal immigration law.

"It appears that Congress doesn't have the fortitude to do anything about the illegal immigration issue," said city Councilman Bill Kling, "and cities on the local level have very little authority to deal with the problem."

"They have helped us"

In Fort Payne, thanks to jobs in the sock factories, about 30 percent of the students are now Hispanic. Although many of the hosiery jobs have since left, said Dr. Larry Hooks, more than 50 new Hispanic students continue to enroll each year.

"Our teachers have become adept at dealing with these students," said Hooks, who oversees English as a Second Language in Fort Payne schools.

In one elementary school, Fort Payne has a bilingual teacher's aide and three full-time teachers who help children learn English. He said the sock factories helped pay for one of those teachers.

For the schools of southwest Huntsville, most of which had been losing students, there is no lack of space. And in Fort Payne, said Hooks, the new children prop up the system.

For example, in 2004-2005, Fort Payne added 82 new Hispanic students, while the system as a whole lost children. "They have kind of held our numbers up," Hooks said. "They have helped us."

Practical matters

Across the city schools, Huntsville now provides special lessons for 935 students who are learning English as a second language. That's nearly double the number from two years ago. More than 630 of those students speak Spanish. No other language comes close.

The second most common is Laotian, followed by Arabic, said Batista, who oversees the systemwide program. But among the students learning English, no more than 30 speak either of those.

Three years ago, teacher Valerie Fulghum said, she asked her fourth-graders at McDonnell what she could do to incorporate more of their culture from home. The children answered with "Pinatas."

But she made other changes. She began to give certain students their spelling words in English and Spanish. She shortened reading assignments. However, she said children learn quickly, and that her top students each of the last two years have been Hispanic.

However, Fulghum said she has yet to meet a new parent who speaks English fluently. Sometimes she asks a student to translate. But when she raises a concern, maybe something about a missed assignment or a discipline problem, she has to watch the parents' faces. Too often, she said, those messages are edited for content. "I've got to take some Spanish," said Fulghum, "I've got to."
http://oneoldvet.com/?p=7323
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Is this fair to American School Age Children?

Why is the Federal Government not checking the parents of these children immediately?

It has all to do with the illegal parents

School Systems have the right to question were we live, but no right to check a parents legal status in the United States.

Come on now

Illegals move around and set up shop where it suits them!! No wonder some states see populations, and problems, grow overnight.

The Alabama cost per student for the 2006-2007 school year was $8,403, and that cost has undoubtedly gone up. I wonder if the citizens of Alabama mind paying for the education of all of the illegal immigrant students, because the illegal's parents surely don't pay for them??

Pelayo said he believes most were lured to southwest Huntsville by the trailer parks and inexpensive housing. Adiel, who spent a year at Grissom High, said the schools need to make an effort to teach the new arrivals English.

Well, then don't build trailer parks and slums and illegals won't have places to set up camp. Adiel, get a clue.....the schools already teach all the children in ENGLISH.....no special teachers necessary...."immigrants" need to just attend classes, pay attention, do their homework and ENglish by immersion occurs. Bilingual education is completely unnecessary.

"We don't even look for whether they are legal or illegal," said city school board member Topper Birney. "That's not our job. Our job is to educate."

Education includes teaching citizenship and obeying the laws. These so-called educators just see $8,403 federal money per pupil.