BVSD school board hears updates on bilingual education, CTE expansions
May 9—The Boulder Valley school board heard updates Tuesday on work to create a K-12 bilingual pathway and to add more Career and Technical Education classes.
The district is starting a bilingual program in the fall at Lafayette's Angevine Middle, giving east county students a closer option, as well as adding more core and elective classes in Spanish at its other two bilingual middle schools. Elective options will include art, dance and physical education.
"These are significant changes," Superintendent Rob Anderson said, adding the district wants the community to think about being bilingual as being a "superpower."
Angevine will start with three classes in Spanish for sixth graders — language arts, science and an elective — plus seventh-grade Spanish language arts. Previously, students who wanted to continue with a bilingual program after elementary school had only two options, Casey or Manhattan middle schools, both in Boulder.
So far, 54 students have enrolled in Angevine's new program.
"Parents were very excited about their students joining the dual language program," said Nativity Miller, Boulder Valley's assistant superintendent of opportunity and access.
Other changes planned for the fall include a dual-language program expansion at Boulder's Columbine Elementary.
The district's other two elementary schools with full dual-immersion bilingual programs are Lafayette's Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer and Boulder's University Hill. In dual-immersion programs, students take classes in English and Spanish, with a goal of leaving fifth grade able to read, write and speak in both languages.
The district also is reintroducing a coteaching model that allows second language students to receive instruction in English in their regular elementary classrooms instead of through a pullout program. That's a change that has been requested by parents.
Kristin Nelson-Steinhoff, the district's director of culturally and linguistically diverse education, said the coteaching model has English language development specialists teaching lessons for about 30 minutes in the regular classroom, generally during math or writing, to support language development.
"Students can access grade level standards, peer language models and language support," she said.
Along with expanding bilingual programs, the district is expanding its Career and Technical Education offerings. To determine which programs to offer, an outside consultant led a community engagement process from February through April. The process included getting feedback from students and industry professionals, with a focus on preparing students for "high-demand, high-growth, high-wage careers."
The 12 preliminary pathways identified are health, bioscience and pharmacy, aerospace, transportation, outdoor recreation, natural products, infrastructure, clean energy, IT/technology, advanced manufacturing, arts, media and entertainment, and hospitality and tourism.
A determination of which programs will be offered at which high schools is expected to be finalized later this month.
Once finalized, the district will use money from its $350 million capital construction bond issue to add space for those classes at middle and high schools. The bond issue, which was approved by voters in November, also includes money for renovations at the Boulder Technical Education Center. The Technical Education Center will continue to offer highly specialized programs, such as welding and automotive repair.
