Dear Editor:
I’ve read the news of the past few weeks concerning the HoLa Dual-Language Program with great dismay. It is one thing to not see a need for this new program and another thing all together to malign its founders with incorrect statements and baseless assumptions.
Jennifer Hindman Sargent and Camille Korschun Bustillo are two kind, conscientious and generous women. They had an idea for the kind of education they wanted for their children. Instead of leaving Hoboken to take advantage of already-established dual-language programs in other towns, they invested their considerable talents, as well as innumerable hours and their own money, to create a program here to benefit Hoboken’s children. They deserve thanks. Instead they have been met with a great deal of suspicion and derision in print and online.
To know Ms. Sargent and Ms. Bustillo is to know two competent, professionally-experienced women whose kindness knows no boundaries and who see things as they can be. In creating HoLa, they never intended to subtract from the school district’s current choices but rather to add another option for Hoboken families. They want only to contribute to efforts that help Hoboken’s children succeed.
I would have thought that efforts of generous individuals like these women would be something we would all support. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Sincerely,
Kathleen D. McGraw