The Urbana District 116 Board of Education voted 4-3 on Tuesday to convert Yankee Ridge Elementary School into a fully multilingual school.
Two Spanish-English language programs at Yankee Ridge are going to merge with the existing French program, with the goal of improving the quality of all the programs.
Administrators and Spanish dual language teachers have pushed for two years to combine their bilingual programs. They say it will help overworked teachers rely on each other and create a better environment for the growing group of English learners.
Meanwhile, the English-dominant students at Yankee Ridge will have to move to other schools next year. Some families urged the district to stop and create a strategic plan before converting their school – and some board members agreed with them.
Board member Citlaly Stanton, though, voted to move forward.
“Two years now, we have been hearing the community say stop, think and plan. I was just feeling like if we stop, think and plan, it is going to happen in another two years. And the kids in the dual lingual program don’t have those two years,” Stanton said.
Stanton said she would prefer to build a new school instead of displacing existing students but that the district does not have the money for that.
Stanton’s son is in the Spanish dual language program at Leal. He wants to move with the program to Yankee Ridge to keep up his bilingualism. She’s worried after the pushback that the Yankee Ridge neighborhood will not be welcoming to him and other immigrant children.
“I wish the Yankee Ridge community would not feel like they are losing their school. They’re gaining a community where they can learn and they can cooperate,” she said.
Many of those who opposed Tuesday night’s decision said they were not opposed to dual language programs in general.
“We want to see the success of the dual language program and are so proud that Urbana values bilingualism and has taken major steps to protect and promote it with a dual language school. We just don’t believe that closing an existing school is the best way to accomplish this goal,” Yankee Ridge teacher Tara Hawkins said.
Richard Zhang is a fourth grader at Yankee Ridge. He will have to move to Leal Elementary next year, separating him from some friends.
“Most of my friends walk to school too. We can study together at school and hang out after school. For me, Yankee Ridge is a big family,” he said.