School to Community Connection
February 27, 2002

Issue 19

Immersion Program Information Meeting Coming Up

Parents of kindergartners enrolling this fall have a wonderful opportunity to enroll their children in the Two-Way Spanish Immersion Program offered in the Healdsburg School District. It is a program that Healdsburg has been fortunate to have for 15 years, and it is available to all children. Program guidelines are that students join the program in kindergarten.

The program is designed to teach children at an early age to read, write, speak and think in a second language. Students learn language at a time when it comes easily. Most importantly, students are able to function in an increasingly diverse society.

In March 2000, then Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley endorsed Two-Way Immersion Education. He remarked, "It is high time that we begin to treat language skills as the assets they are, particularly in this global economy. Anything that encourages a person to know more than one language is positive and should be treated as such. Proficiency in English and one other language is something that we need to encourage among all young people. Our country can only grow stronger if all our children grow up learning two languages."

The Two-Way Immersion Program is committed to providing the best education a student can have while learning two languages at the same time. Now is the time to discover one of the choices available to Healdsburg's children. Parents, teachers, and administrators involved in the Immersion Program encourage you to visit classes and experience for yourself the joy and satisfaction of the students who are actively learning to understand and live in our multi-cultural world.

If you would like more information regarding the Immersion Program, come to the informational meeting at Fitch Mountain Elementary School on March 7, 2002 at 6:30 p.m. in the PMD Room. If you have questions, call Connie Smith at 431-3480. Additional information about the program is available at Fitch Mountain School, Foss Creek Elementary, the HUSD Office, and the district website at www.husd.com.

Recently 15 students from the 6th grade Two-Way Immersion Program at Foss Creek Elementary were in Morelia, Mexico for two weeks. An account of their activities and lots of photos can be found on the school website at www.foss.husd.com.

By Pat Louvau