Dear Editor:
There has been a great deal of discussion in our community about the Hoboken Board of Education’s attempts to halt the Department of Education approved expansion of HoLa through 8th grade. One of the reasons this expansion has turned into such a polarizing issue is that HoLa has proven to be a remarkably popular school choice. The demand each year for kindergarten slots far exceeds the openings, resulting in huge waiting lists. The reason for this is simple: many Hoboken parents place a premium value on a dual language education for their children, especially in a language as relevant to the future of our region and nation as Spanish. The Board of Education should address the unmet demand for dual language education by offering a Spanish immersion program within some of the non-charter, public schools.
The city of Bellevue, which lies just outside of Seattle, provides a template for how this can be done. The Bellevue School District (BSD) consistently ranks as one of the best public school systems in the nation. Within their system, they have operated a Spanish immersion ‘choice’ school, by the name of Puesta del Sol, for many years. Like HoLa, this school is incredibly popular with Bellevue parents, resulting in substantial waiting lists for the incoming kindergarten classes. In Bellevue though, parents have other options for dual language education. A few years ago, BSD began offering dedicated dual language options in three of the public elementary schools in town. Within these schools, kindergarten parents can choose to have their child enter an English only classroom or a dual language classroom. The dual language classroom s use an immersion model similar to HoLa, with instruction predominantly in Spanish in the early grades, trending to 50 percent Spanish by later grades. These dual language programs have been available for several years now and have proven to be a popular choice. BSD also offers a similar program in Mandarin, the most widely spoken language in the world. Rather than wasting precious resources in a divisive fight to curtail HoLa’s expansion, our community should look for viable methods for providing dual language educational options for more Hoboken children.
Stephen Fox
HoLa parent