School giving immigrants a second chance

Matt Terrell
Vail CO, Colorado
September 6, 2007

GYPSUM — Interviewing students at the New America School is a team effort.

Ask them questions, and they guide each other through tough words and finish each other’s sentences. They encourage each other to speak and help their friends understand the journalist sitting in front of them. It seems fitting at a school designed to immerse them in a language they never hear at home.

With her classmate translating, Diana Aguilar says she signed up for New America School because she wants to learn English and earn a diploma.

“I knew it would be easier here,” Aguilar said.

With its eye on a growing Hispanic population in Eagle County, the New America School opened this week with 43 students. The school is hoping to reach out to high school immigrants who may have fallen through the cracks. Here, they’ll have a chance to learn English and walk out as high school graduates, principal Kathy Brendza said.

The first week
It’s 9:45 a.m. on a Thursday, and many students haven’t shown up for the day.
Some of them are working. One student has a sick child. Some of them will be taking night classes. A couple more walk in within the next hour.

It’s not an unusual thing, nor is it frowned upon. Brendza said that while students will be held accountable for making up class hours, one of the school’s main missions is giving students the flexibility they couldn’t find in other schools, which may be why many of them dropped out.

Hugo Serna said work and class never mixed well before, and that’s why he’s attending New America.

“They understand I have to work, and now I can study and work at the same time,” Serna said.

During these first two weeks, teachers are learning everything they can about their new students. On Thursday, they were sifting through school records trying to figure out how many credits they need to graduate. Some students are a credit or two away from graduating, some have a few years to go.

The first major project for the students is to tell their life story through a multimedia presentation. Brendza said that many of these students were born and raised here, while some of them have only been in the United States for a few months.

Many of the students are parents, and the $200 a month for daycare the school provides was a big pull for them. Most of them have jobs. Many of them had dropped out of high school, perhaps demoralized and discouraged after struggling through class as their peers soared ahead. Many of them haven’t been to school in ages.
All these things are important to know from the very beginning, says Bob Darnell, dean of students.

“We have to ask what are those variables that existed in their lives that prevented them from going to school, and we have to address those and make sure they have support,” Darnell said.

Teachers are also figuring out how much English the students really know. Since they’re coming from such a wide variety of backgrounds, teachers are just now finding out how rigorous the language instruction has to be. Some students know very little English, while others just need some help with writing.

“We have kids born in the United States who speak fluent English and kids who have been here three months,” said Heather Goodrich, the English Language Acquisition coordinator for the school. “It’s hard to design a program when you don’t know what skill level the kids are at.”

More students wanted
Finding interested students hasn’t been difficult, but the school is still looking for more students.

Recruitment started with door-to-door surveys in the Avon and Edwards mobile home parks, then stretched to recruiting at churches, barbecues, yard signs, letters and banners.

The school, which is still under construction, is on the second floor of the Gypsum Center where a well-known Mexican restaurant and market stay busy below. There will also be satellite locations at Avon Elementary and Berry Creek Middle School in Edwards where English night classes will be taught.

Classes will soon be offered in Leadville as well.

The school offers science, math, computers courses, social studies and language arts classes, all through the lens of English-language immersion. If students do well at New America, it’s possible they could re-enroll at Battle Mountain High School or Eagle Valley High School. But they can also stay and graduate from New America.
Students are also expressing interest in going to college. Student Crystal Corral hopes to attend beauty school after she earns her diploma, and New America seemed to be the best way to get there, she said.

“They’re helping me find scholarships already,” she said.

Staff Writer Matt Terrell can be reached at 748-2955 or mterrell@vaildaily.com