Thread: Plan: Some Principles Must Speak Spanish

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... a7250.html

Plan: Some principals must speak Spanish

08:44 PM CDT on Sunday, May 8, 2005
By VANESA SALINAS / Al DÃÂ*a

A Dallas schools trustee is concerned that principals at schools where most of the students have difficulty speaking English may not be able to communicate with them or their parents.

Joe May said he would discuss with his Dallas school board colleagues on Tuesday the possibility of requiring that principals who work in these schools commit to learning Spanish.

"We want to make the principal more accessible to the children and the parents of children with limited English proficiency, and we want to encourage parental involvement," Mr. May said. "The inability of a principal to communicate with a majority of the students' parents in itself discourages parental involvement."

Mr. May said his proposal would apply to principals at schools where at least half the students are or were classified as "limited English proficient." Principals would have to be proficient in the primary language of those students.

The Dallas school district says it has 42 schools in which at least half the students have limited English proficiency. A total of 100 DISD schools have a student population in which the majority of students are or were classified as such. Forty of those schools have principals who don't speak Spanish, according to DISD documents.

While other trustees and the head of Dallas' Hispanic School Administrators Association said the idea has some merit, they would like more details. Trustee Ron Price said the district needs to ensure it can legally require principals to speak languages other than English.

"I've never heard this happening anywhere else in the United States, so we need to make sure this passes the legal test to say that you have such a policy," Mr. Price said.

Sylvia Fuentes, principal of Obadiah Knight Elementary and president of Dallas' Hispanic School Administrators Association, said it might be better for the district to encourage, but not require, its principals to speak the language of the majority of its students.

"I do think it would be better than 'required' to say 'preferred' and that they would make sure that the district would [support] the administrators in attaining the second language," Ms. Fuentes said.

E-mail vsalinas@aldiatx.com

Allowing this to happen, is throwing in the towel, to these people who ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to assimilate. America is going downhill really fast, when we feel it is our responsibility to appease and accommodate the whims of every foreigner who steps into our country.

Is this not BACKWARDS?

Shouldn't it be the parents and the kids COMMITTING TO LEARN ENGLISH?

I think I'm going to be sick - this has blown my mind - assimilation in reverse????????

This is what passes for assimilation here in Texico!!!

SIXX,
What ARE the Texans doing about this re: state issues??

My goodness, you guys are on the firing line, for goodness sakes. Isn't anyone standing up and screaming?

NO, YOU'RE NOT SPENDING MY TAX DOLLARS ON ILLEGAL PEOPLE

I keep trying to write a response to this article, but it infuriates me so much I can't form a coherent sentence!!!!! ARRRGGH!

W - can we launch a similar initiative in Texas as we did in NC? As 2ndamendsis says, we Texans are on the front lines here!!! Though I'm not in Dallas, I deeply fear the precedent this would set for the rest of Texas - and the rest of the States! I will do everything and anything to help! I just don't know where to start!

This is a good idea.

If immigrants don't want to learn the language that 90% of the world's business & scientific correspondence is written in, (oops)

Let them remain monolingual speakers of a language that dominates the fields of bullfighting and soccer. And picking strawberries.

Let's see the hilarity that ensues with the first African-American is laid off because of this rule.

Mod edit; please avoid swearing, including coded swearing such as @#$%^ Thx