Aspen Elementary will begin offering Spanish dual immersion this coming fall.

Principal Suzie Williams will begin the hiring process for Spanish-speaking teachers this spring after students who put in their applications will find out if they’re accepted into the program in March. 

The program, which had a grass roots start with students’ parents asking for it at the school level, was approved in January by the school board and more recently, granted funding by the state legislature.

“We’re excited,” Williams said. “We have been approved by the state for dual language starting with first grade.”

Similar to other dual immersion elementary schools, Spanish will be offered to first-grade students. Those students enrolled in the program will receive instruction for half of the day in Spanish and half of the day in English. The entire school will learn Spanish culture and traditions with the hope of them gaining a more global education and experience, said Williams, who previously had been a principal at another dual language immersion school.

The process to get dual immersion in the school has taken awhile.

“We had interest when we opened in 2021, but we didn’t have the enrollment to sustain it,” Williams said. “The reason we’re getting it is the community has pushed for it. We’ve had parents pushing for it for two years.”

It came to the forefront again this past fall when it was introduced at Aspen’s School Community Council meeting.

“I brought it up at our school community council meeting,” Aspen parent and teacher Haley McCall said. “I knew a lot of people from the community really wanted it as well.”

In October, McCall drafted a letter to the school board letting them know that Aspen’s school community council was interested in the dual immersion program.

“They had concerns about the boundaries with a new elementary school opening nearby, so initially, they said no. A lot of parents were not quite thrilled with that response. As a community council, we encouraged our community to contact school board members. Our parents came out in force, which to me showed how much they wanted this program. With that outpouring from the community, the board reconsidered and sent out the survey,” she said.

Jordan School District Asst. Superintendent Mike Anderson said the survey was sent in December to 2,227 patrons in the Aspen, Bastian and Oak Leaf elementary schools. Nearly 300 parents responded. A survey also was given to Aspen Elementary staff.

On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being extremely interested, the patrons’ response for introducing the program was at 8.5. Breaking that down more, the interest level from heritage speakers was 9.7; English speakers was at 8.3.

“The responses were very, very positive and supportive so that’s what prompted the Board to approve their request,” he said.

McCall said the response surprised the Board.

“They ended up getting more response back from any other DLI survey before and they had a big response from our heritage-speaking community, which they haven’t had in the past,” she said.

McCall, who taught at Welby Elementary when Spanish was introduced there, understands the program, the teachers’ apprehensions about it as well as the benefits of dual immersion.

“When they first brought DLI to Welby, I was not excited about it. Amongst teachers, there’s a lot of misconceptions. A lot of people worried about losing jobs, or what it would look like. But I thought if we’re bringing this program, I want to help create a strong foundation for it. As I did that, I ended up falling in love with DLI,” she said. “The students became more empathetic learners being able to learn a different language and a different culture when they’re 6 years old. It opens their eyes to a bigger world around them. By the end of the year, the amount of Spanish they learned blew me away. “

She also saw the bonds formed of the cohort that begin in that first-grade classroom through graduation.

“I love the friendships that they created. A lot of my first students are still good friends with each other and they have graduated high school. I love that,” she said. “It’s incredible to see how far they’ve come since first grade. They’re more advanced academically and can graduate high school with a Spanish minor in college. They have this tool that helps them their entire lifetime. They’re already ahead of their peers because they can speak fluently in two languages, which can only help them on their career paths.”

McCall, who will receive training this summer as she will be teaching the English side of the program, believes that Aspen’s program will be unique to some other Spanish dual immersion programs because of the heritage speakers enrolled in the school.

“At Aspen, we’ve got quite a big Hispanic community, just from the number of refugees we have at our school and the number of Spanish-speakers coming in. I’m hoping this will help our Spanish kids learn English at a quicker rate and help them catch on to academics quicker when they’re able to learn it in their native language for half of a day,” she said.

Another area McCall can foresee the program will help is integration of students and their families at the school.

“I often see on the playground that children playing don’t mix because of the language barrier. I see this to bridge the gap. The program also will make heritage-speaking parents feel more comfortable in the school and they can help us embrace and learn about their culture,” she said.

McCall has a personal reason for introducing the program to the school. She wants to enroll her younger son in Spanish dual immersion.

“My kindergartner is half Mexican and he’s meeting some of his biological family who speak Spanish, so he has a great interest in learning about his culture. He has been wanting to learn the language and he keeps asking how to say different things. I’d like to keep my son at the school I teach at; I put his application in to be able to have him participate in that program. This program will help him connect with his culture and his biological family in ways that I’m not able to help him,” McCall said, who knows basic conversational Spanish, but is not fluent. 

Jordan Board of Education President Tracy Miller said dual immersion is one thing that she foresees will benefit all students.

“Aspen Elementary’s community wanted the Spanish-immersion program here partly to unify the school,” she said. “There are a number of students moving into this area who are Spanish-heritage speakers. The community saw this as a great opportunity for their kids to have the opportunity to learn Spanish so that they can better communicate with these heritage speakers, and it also helps the heritage speakers because they can learn the structure and foundations of their own language in the DLI program, and it will help them learn English. This is an amazing opportunity for kids to leave school fluent in both languages.”   λ