The sounds of English and Spanish hover in the air at East Side Elementary, the languages weaving in and out of each other.
The school’s gym is full of tables with bilingual teachers and volunteer interpreters, who were streamlining Wednesday’s registration for students in East Side’s English Language Learner program.
“For me, the help (is) really good because they ask us a lot of questions (in English) and I don’t understand everything,” Herlinda Mendez said in Spanish. She was at East Side Elementary registering her 7-year-old son, Wayner Puác.
English Language Learners, generally recent immigrants or children of recent immigrants, are students who study English in addition to the rest of their school work.
About two years ago, La Paz Chattanooga, a local nonprofit agency that provides services to the local Hispanic community, gathered volunteers to help interpret during registration day for three of the Hamilton County elementary schools with the highest percentage of Hispanic students – East Side, Clifton Hills and East Lake.
This year, the group had close to 20 interpreters, including employees of La Paz, distributed among the three schools.
“Because we work with a lot of these families on a regular basis we have that relationship already, and getting their kids registered for school is a very important thing, not only for the kids, but for the community, too,” said Laurie Cook with La Paz.
Within 20 minutes, Melody Bonilla, who works with the clients of La Paz, helped interpret for about four families, including the Mendezes, answering questions about lunch forms, physicals and classes.
Having interpreters has been helpful not only for the families but for the teachers, said Angel Schrader, second grade teacher.
PERCENTAGE OF HISPANIC STUDENTS* East Side Elementary: 276, 44.4 percent* East Lake Elementary: 78, 19 percent* Clifton Hills Elementary: 94, 19 percentSource: Tennessee Department of Education, Report Card 2009
“It makes the day go so much more smoothly, and it makes the families feel a lot more comfortable,” she said.
Before they had interpreters, Schrader, who has been at East Side for five years, and principal Emily Baker said they did the best they could.
“It was very difficult, it was frustrating for us and for the family who could not speak English with us,” she said. “We used a lot of hand gestures and expressions.”
Baker said the parents always were very patient and used their best English, while the teachers used their best Spanish.
And before they had as many interpreters, children frequently were used to interpret for their parents. Wayner, though, said he didn’t mind it.
As the number of immigrant students increased, the need to have more interpreters was evident, Baker said.
“It enables us to serve the parents and get the children registered quicker, so we are doing it in a more efficient manner, and we are able to register more because we have all the interpreters here to help us,” she said.
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