Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct a reference to current SCCPSS Superintendent Denise Watts in Christina Magaña's claim that families and Migrant Equity Southeast had been emailing district leaders about language equity. The statement was updated to share Magaña's intended reference to former SCCPSS Superintendent Ann Levett.
English speakers of other languages (ESOL) students and their families feel overlooked by the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS).
That is the message that Christina Magaña of Migrant Equity Southeast communicated at last week’s September School Board meeting. “Because of the language inequity, we have a lot of parents come to us,” she said in a follow up interview. “It’s easier for them to ask us instead of trying to source information from the district, at times.”
At the Sept. 6 board meeting, Magaña shared families’ concerns about SCCPSS’s relocation of 187 ESOL students from Robert W. Groves High School to other high schools in the district.
Magaña and Migrant Equity Southeast have been assisting immigrant and low-income Hispanic families with a variety of needs. On May 8, the organization released the Investing in Hispanic Families in Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools report. The report documents various struggles that ESOL families have had when interacting with the school system. The report also offered recommendations for SCCPSS to consider across five key areas: translation and interpretation, enrollment assistance, more counselors and social workers, cultural sensitivity, and multicultural community engagement.
Deputy Superintendent Bernadette Ball-Oliver assured that the district had taken that report and other data sources into consideration as the district enhanced its ESOL programming for the 2023-24 school year. She explained that the recent transitioning of students was part of a long-term plan to expand ESOL services to Jenkins, Johnson (in conjunction with Savannah High), Beach, Windsor Forest and New Hampstead high schools. The original timeline of the transition had been set for August 2024. Until Sept. 5, Groves was the only SCCPSS high school that provided specific ESOL services.
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Overcrowding led to short notice
Approximately 63 ESOL students remained at Groves, which has one designated ESOL teacher and one ESOL certified paraprofessional, which falls within federal guidelines, according to Ball-Oliver. One of Groves’ ESOL teachers was moved to Windsor Forest to assist the approximately 50 students who transitioned there. The district stated that it has been able to designate educators at the other high schools to lead ESOL services. They were also part of the welcome teams that helped students through the transition.
Magaña and Migrant Equity said that families felt the district’s abrupt change took students away from their friends and impactful teachers without sufficient notice. “It really communicates a harmful message that their [ESOL students’] connections and sense of belonging don't matter. Two weeks’ notice is not acceptable.”
Ball-Oliver conceded that the timeline was not ideal. “If we were going to do this in a perfect world, it would have been August of 2024.”
She referred to past school board meetings, where public discussions and budget votes for additional ESOL service funding were conducted. The district had planned to communicate the ESOL expansion to impacted families in January 2024. She acknowledged that over-enrollment at Groves expedited the situation. “We were working on capacity concerns, which was a safety issue and so we needed to make those transitions as quickly as feasibly possible.”
According to Ball-Oliver, SCCPSS did not foresee the increased enrollment situation at Groves or at the rest of the district’s high schools for that matter. “Some principals have talked about out-of-state transfers having increased. I have not done an analysis to definitively give you those points, but we did see an uptick in our high school enrollment across the board.”
Summer registration numbers for Groves did not draw cause for concern from the district. Ball-Oliver cited past trends. “We could have a large registration, but then we could have had 200 no-shows, which often happens. We write the staffing model once we see what the actual enrollment is."
Actual enrollment numbers materialized around Aug. 16, the tenth day of the school year. “That's when we saw that the high school numbers were holding pretty steady,” she said.
The district had planned for a face-to-face meeting on Wednesday Aug. 30 with impacted families. That meeting would have given students Thursday at Groves to see their peers and teachers one last time in-person. Hurricane Idalia forced the district to hold a virtual meeting. Some families missed the update or did not have enough time to adjust. Ball-Oliver said about 90 to 100 people attended the virtual meeting, which did feature translators.
Enough teachers and class space for the transition?
Magaña stated that the timing of the move affected students academically. She shared that some students could not get into classes they needed. Another concern was apparent lack of designated ESOL teachers at some schools. “And some ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps] students are not able to continue, which is really sad because…that's the career path they're choosing,” she said.
Ball-Oliver said that the district had enough educators to accommodate the expansion. She did say that Beach High is still working to fill an ESOL-specific instructor vacancy, but that the school has been served by a district-level employee with ESOL certification. “In fact, she is a former Beach High teacher and is bilingual,” she said.
Other schools have instructors who were transferred to ESOL roles because they possess the necessary certification. In two instances, instructors were transferred from Groves. One went to Windsor Forest, and one went to Jenkins.
The Savannah Morning News asked why the district did not consider delaying the move when it was clear the hurricane would disrupt in-person engagement. Ball-Oliver responded, “The goal was to get students settled into their new schools and into that instructional environment and culture…before we started looking at midterms.”
She explained how counselors worked diligently to assure that no student would be negatively impacted regarding graduation requirements. If the Groves students were in one of the 17 career clusters that SCCPSS offers, she assured that they were assigned to that cluster at their new school. “It just might not be the exact same pathway class,” she said.
She also clarified that every high school has ROTC programs. “Jenkins is a Naval ROTC. So, if you were at Groves in the Army ROTC, and you transferred over to Jenkins, then the branch may have changed but core instruction is the same.”
For students and families whose first language is not English, inconsistent communication about all the nuances has led to frustration.
“This is probably the biggest inconsideration of ESL parents collectively,” said Magaña. “If you look back at other school board meetings, we have been there.” She claimed that families and Migrant Equity Southeast have been emailing district board members, board President Roger Moss and former SCCPSS Superintendent Ann Levett about language equity. “We have not had any response recently. If we ever get responses, it’s always, 'We'll get back to you.'”
Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at jschwartzburt@gannett.com.
