Framingham to Resurrect Bilingual Program at Fuller Middle School

Earlier this summer, a group of parents presented a petition to the Framingham Public Schools seeking a return of bilingual education to Fuller Middle School.

Last night, Framingham Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott told the parent group bilingual education will return to that middle school, when school resumes in less than 2 weeks.

Scott, Framingham Public Schools Director of Bilingual Education Gen Grieci, and Framingham’s Chief Academic Officer Sonia Diaz, along with Fuller Middle School Principal Sharon Seyller, Fuller math coordinator Barbara Rappaport and English Language Arts coordinator Lori DiGisi all attended a meeting of parent group “La Voz de la Comunidad- Framingham” (Community Voice of Framingham) Wednesday night at the Framingham Public Library.

Framingham Patch was the first media outlet to report about the July petition and the request to resurrect the bilingual program.

The petition was signed by parents of children who attend Brophy Elementary School and Fulller Middle School. The parents native language is Spanish.

The parents in the petition said children in the Transitional Bilingual Education program at Brophy Elementary are able to learn educational content in their native language, and slowly acculturate to their new home, and learn English as quickly as possible in a supportive environment, stated the organization in its petition. But once students graduate from Brophy and go to Fuller Middle, they “confront a drastic and difficult change to a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) program.”

That will change this year, at least for grade 6 Fuller Middle school students, immediately.

Grieci explained that the district is in the process of hiring a Spanish and a Portuguese speaking teacher, certified in Massachusetts, who can teacher math and science classes in Spanish and in Portuguese for grade 6 students.

Grade 7 and 8 students will have aides in science and math classes to help students struggling to learn English.

Scott authorized money to the school for the hiring of two teachers and additional aides to resurrect the bilingual program at the middle school.

“In the past the program was stronger,” said Scott to parents. “We need to go back to that program.”

Fuller Middle School has not had a bilingual program since 2009.

“It is very important for students to speak two languages,” said Scott to the parents last night.

The Superintendent of Schools said the district knows it has things it needs to fix, but that money was not available.

But last month, the state gave the Framingham Public Schools an additional $1 million, and Scott is using some of that money to re-start the bilingual program at Fuller.

Greci said the district offers a bilingual program at the elementary level at Brophy and offers bilingual education at Framingham High, and that adding bilingual education back to Fuller, gives the district “vertical alignment.”

“It just makes sense to have a program at the middle school level too,” said Greci.

The goal is to eventually have in place a teacher in both Spanish and Portuguese to teach science and math in a student’s native language in all three grades at Fuller Middle School by the end of the 2015-16 school year, Greci told the parent group last night.

“We are very confident we will find the teachers,” said Greci.

“This is building a good foundation,” said Ruthie Ortiz.

Fuller students who need help will be continue to take classes in English with their peers in music, art, and physical education. They will also take English as a second Language classes and receive help in their native language in ELA classes too.

Of the 465 students at Fuller Middle School, more than 17 percent are identified as English Language Learners (ELL). Of the district’s three middle schools, Fuller has the most students struggling to learn English.

According to data from the state, 47.6 percent of the Fuller students, English was not their first language.