Sitting in a classroom is not easy when you`re 12 and the calendar says it`s summer. But Ismael Castrejon and Jose Rodriguez, participants in a specialized migrant program at Highland Park`s Indian Trail School, admit, although somewhat reluctantly, that summer school can have its advantages.
The field trips, games and swimming sessions are definitely their favorite part, they said. And because their parents work during the day, they said they would be sitting at home doing nothing if they weren`t in school.
But for these two Mexican-born children and their classroom peers, the pluses go beyond keeping them busy and showing them a good time. The migrant program is a place where their two worlds blend. The sign on the door says welcome, but it also says bienvenidos. Teacher Adrian Puentes begins to ask the class a question with, ”Children, may I have your attention?” but then slips into Spanish to explain his request.
”These children often can`t compete in the English-speaking classroom during the year, and the environment here is comforting,” said program director Denis Ciezadlo. ”Their attitude is positive; they feel warm about it here,” he said.
The Highwood-Highland Park Migrant Program, paid for with federal dollars, meets five days a week from June 14 through July 31. It is part of the national Migrant Education Program, started in 1966 to reach children of migrant families who are poor, constantly mobile, with poor English-language skills.
Many migrants move to five or six states in one year-picking Wisconsin beans in July, Michigan cherries in August-and their education is interrupted, Ciezadlo said.
The Highwood-Highland Park program began in 1975. In the local program serving Districts 107, 108 and 111 residents, about 35 percent of the students fall into that category and will be moving on, Ciezadlo said. The migrant program makes it possible to track these children so educators in widely separated areas can work as a team, he said.
For children to qualify initially, their parents must work in the agricultural field, which in this area is usually nursery and landscape jobs. But the program allows children whose families have settled here and moved out of landscaping jobs to keep coming back for five years. About 65 percent of the class, including Jose and Ismael, are in that group.
Academically, the lessons focus on the basics-reading, writing and arithmetic, Ciezadlo said. ”We try to reinforce what they`ve learned during the year,” said Puentes, who teaches a class of 6th, 7th and 8th graders.
The children`s physical well-being is also looked after, in the form of dental work, eye exams and physicals. Families are reminded to take advantage of free immunizations provided through the county. Twice-weekly swimming sessions are an ”inducement to keep the kids coming to class,” Ciezadlo said.
”Activities, like a trip to the zoo, give the children experiences they wouldn`t otherwise have,” Puentes said.
Like state summer school education, funds for the federal Migrant Education Program are dwindling, Ciezadlo said. The dollars themselves have grown but have not kept pace with inflation and program growth, he said.
There used to be an aide in each class; now there is one per two classes. Even though dollars have grown nationwide, the local Highland Park-Highwood program`s share this year will be $51,000, a $2,000 decline from last summer, Ciezadlo said. That is because states such as Texas have grabbed a bigger piece of the pie, he said.
