Chambana Sun

At the Dec. 6 board meeting, the Urbana School District board was told that two thirds of the language committee recommended that all K-5 dual language programs be consolidated and only offered at Leal School starting in the 2023-2024 school year. Many residents, parents and teachers have spoken out against the proposed plan with most concerns related to the relocation of students and classroom size. Other concerns have been that the plan wouldn’t fix the crowding situation, it would be implemented quickly without a lot of prior planning, and there was no outside firm brought in to provide insight on possible changes.

“Continuing feedback was a reminder that the focus of any decision needs to be on children,” Secondary Multilingual and Alternative/Inclusionary Programs Executive Director Joseph Wiemelt said at the meeting. “We oftentimes find ourselves thinking about adult-type needs and issues, which is a part of the process and has to be a part of the conversation, but sometimes student needs get pushed back and, not saying for or against the decision. But that oftentimes happens as adults are working: we center our thoughts and our perspectives without thinking about students, and we can make that argument on both sides of this issue.”

As mentioned at the meeting, there were options to put any changes on pause until after the district’s equity audit in May 2023, but the district leaned toward implementing the whole school model sooner.

District staff talked about redesigning some of the Leal school or limiting accepted students, and explained that Leal was chosen because consolidation there would disrupt the least amount of families and the least amount of financially insecure families.