East-side Spanish immersion school can expand kindergarten program

Tamira Madsen  —  7/15/2008 3:27 pm

New Superintendent Dan Nerad didn't waste time getting down to business in his first foray leading a Board meeting of the Madison Metropolitan School District, as he sought approval for an additional kindergarten section at Nuestro Mundo Community School.

Board members voted 5-0 Monday night to give Nerad authority to create the extra section during the 2008-09 school year at Nuestro Mundo, a charter school located on Buckeye Road on the city's East side and housed within Frank Allis Elementary School. The addition is a one-time agreement and is dependent on enrollment figures in September at the Spanish language immersion school, which is part of the Allis Elementary attendance area.

Not including the additional 15-student kindergarten section, 45 spots will be open in three sections at Nuestro Mundo during the 2008-09. A plan needed to be established when school officials learned that 55 Allis families submitted kindergarten applications for those 45 slots, so a lottery will occur Tuesday for the available slots. Approximately 25 families outside of the Allis attendance area also have applied for enrollment. School rules don't allow families outside the attendance area take part in the lottery, but those families are eligible to vie for seats in the extra kindergarten section.

Attendance has risen over the past four years at the school and Nerad said the increase signifies the community's value in the school. There were 181 students enrolled in kindergarten through third grade during the 2007-08 school year at Nuestro Mundo, which will teach fourth graders this fall for the first time in the school's history.

"I believe having a dual language immersion program in the district is important," Nerad said. "What we're learning here is that there's quite a bit of interest in the program to the point now where we have more applications than seats available."

Debora Gil Casado, chairwoman of the Nuestro Mundo Inc. School Committee, said if the additional kindergarten section is added, school officials will make it a priority to accommodate teachers' children and families with students already enrolled at Nuestro Mundo.

The five-year contract between the district and Nuestro Mundo expires in June 2009 and negotiations will begin in the next few weeks to review and consider modifications with the new contract. A main objective of school officials is to assist students in becoming proficient in Spanish and English by the time they finish fifth grade. Another goal they hope to attain is to accommodate an even number of Spanish and English speaking students, but currently English students are favored by a 51-49 ratio.

While Casado said she's satisfied with the Board's decision to add a section of kindergarten if it's needed, both Casado and Nerad said school expansion is a topic that needs to be discussed as details for the contract are hammered out.

"With expansion, what we've been asking the district is that we want to be a part of the Madison plan overall," Casado said. "We don't want to come in and say, 'We want this because we want it.' We want to be fiscally responsible. We want to be a part of the plan of the growth in Madison and the school district.

"We really want to be included in the long-range planning and plan this out so it makes educational sense, and it will be the best for the kids in the long run and will be an asset to the Madison community."

With the popularity and growth of Nuestro Mundo, Casado said at some point in the near future, Nerad and the Board need to consider the possibility of sponsoring immersion programs at other schools in the district.

She also said a Nuestro Mundo parent group is also studying options for dual language immersion at the middle school level.

Tamira Madsen  —  7/15/2008 3:27 pm