St. John: SUSD to pursue its own course on English

Despite heavy criticism from the state school superintendent, the Sahuarita schools will pursue their planned English Language Learner (ELL) program for middle and high school students when the new school year starts, rather than the follow the state’s four-hour-a-day requirement.

That may be the case in part because the state will not hear the district’s request for an alternate program until mid-August, eight days after the new school year starts.

District Superintendent Jay St. John said the school district will follow the direction given by the school board May 14, which is to provide at least one class plus individualized help as needed for ELL students in grades 6 to 12 and kindergarten, while following the state mandate of four hours a day for grades 1 to 5.

The board voted on that plan after staff said the state plan would block ELL students in grades 6 through 12 from taking some electives and enough core courses to graduate from high school and therefore apparently would violate an equal access guideline of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Education Department. The district has been under investigation by OCR since 2002 after a teacher filed a complaint.

District Director of Student Services Barbara Smith told the board on May 14 that OCR officials had said in telephone consultations that a four-hour ELL requirement, by reducing students’ course options, would violate the equal access guidelines.

A spokesman for the OCR said the agency has not issued a formal ruling on the state law, which affects Sahuarita and some of the other 10 Arizona school districts under OCR review.

After the Governing Board decision was publicized, State School Superintendent Tom Horne castigated the district, saying it could not get away with violating the law. Horne threatened to “closely monitor” all district programs, to challenge state and federal funding and to try to revoke the teaching certificate of the superintendent, among other things. St. John shot back, saying Horne could not touch federal funding and that Arizona does not require that a superintendent hold a teaching certificate.

The district applied to the state for an alternative ELL model during the first week in June, but the state will not consider it for at least 45 days.

The task force that considers requests for alternative programs meets on Thursday and again on July 10, but will not consider Sahuarita’s request until Aug. 14, Arizona Department of Education spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said in an e-mail message.

“The next scheduled meeting of the ELL Task Force is June 12. I am finalizing the agenda now for posting. Sahuarita is not on the agenda. The Alternate model application process states that ‘The Task Force will review, and if possible, give preliminary indications of approval, modification or rejection at the first scheduled meeting, not less than 45 days after submission.’ We received the Sahuarita application on June 5, 2008. Based on this, their hearing would miss the July 10 meeting, and be scheduled for the Aug. 14 meeting,” Rezzonico said.

The Sahuarita school year starts on Aug. 5 for students and several weeks earlier for teachers, so the district will pursue its current plan, St. John said.

On May 14, Smith told the Governing Board “we have a program that is extremely effective in spite of new regulations the state has been trying to impose. Kids do make gains, though we are not seeing them four hours a day.”

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738