800 new students don’t speak English

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By Jason Wermers
jwermers@news-press.com
Originally posted on August 19, 2007

When the Lee County School District begins classes Monday, it expects about 800 new students who speak Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Portuguese or some other language — not English.

That represents one in five of the 4,000 additional students Lee schools expect to welcome, bringing the projected enrollment to 82,100.

It also means 8 percent of the district’s students have a lot of work to do to catch up to their English-speaking peers.

The district almost tripled its staff of teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages from 18 to 53 between 2005-06 and 2006-07.

The number of ESOL teachers for the 2007-08 school year was not immediately available because it is based on how many students actually enroll when classes begin, Lee County Schools Superintendent James Browder said.

The growing number of ESOL teachers has increased the amount of money earmarked to pay them — $702,247 in 2005-06 to more than $2.2 million in 2006-07.

“It is a huge program,â€