Budget woes may dim a bilingual beacon

For more than 30 years, this public school has taught science, math, and other subjects in Spanish and English, drawing parents from across the city with its track record of helping students who speak one of those languages become fluent in both while maintaining high test scores.

But much of the city, including many children already enrolled at the Hernández, could be blocked from this multicultural experience a year from September. To save on busing costs, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson has proposed restricting access to the Hernández to only a few neighborhoods. The move highlights the precarious balancing act the superintendent must perform as she attempts to shorten bus routes in a district sprinkled with too few good-quality schools and specialized programs.

The Hernández - one of three schools that teach in Spanish and English - is the only one open to students from every Boston neighborhood. Stripping Hernández of citywide status, along with shrinking the student assignment areas for the other two schools, would leave many neighborhoods, including heavily Latino East Boston, without access to any such program.

All the while, parents around the city and activists for immigrant students have been calling for more of these programs, believing they can improve achievement among English-language learners. The programs also offer English-speaking students a golden opportunity to learn another language, they say.

"It's very worrisome that East Boston, which has the largest number of Latinos, would not have access to a two-way language program," said Miren Uriarte, a research associate at the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. "Denying the masses is not good policy unless there is a clear intent to develop more two-way language programs."

Johnson said in an interview that stripping all elementary and middle schools of citywide status is necessary to release the district from the obligation of busing charter and private school students in those grades citywide, all of which could save the district about $1.3 million annually. She stressed that she is committed to creating more dual-language programs, adding that the Dever School in Dorchester is starting a program this fall with 40 kindergarten students. Dever, however, is in a zone that already has a dual-language program.

"We are working with East Boston," Johnson said.

The spur for Johnson's proposed restriction on the Hernández School is Mayor Thomas M. Menino's request last year that she carve $10 million out of the district's transportation budget, which covers the cost of ferrying students across the city's three sprawling school assignment zones. The system provides families with an array of choices and access to at least one dual-language program, but means that many buses arrive at schools at least half empty, according to a Globe report.

In February, Johnson proposed dividing the city into five smaller geographic zones, which encountered resistance from community activists and some parents who worried about reduced access to high-performing schools. Johnson estimated the overall plan could save between $8.5 million and $10.4 million.

But the savings would come at a price for the Hernández: Some 56 percent of the approximately 400 students reside outside the proposed attendance boundaries. Johnson may allow those students to stay, but not provide their transportation.

It is unclear whether the seven-member School Committee, appointed by Menino, will support the Hernández change. The Rev. Gregory Groover, the board's chairman, and Helen Dájer, another member, have questioned the proposal, although neither has officially taken a position. The board will vote on all transportation changes next month, after holding community meetings.

"It's a program that's proven itself and a model we should replicate as much as we can, as desired by neighborhoods," said Dájer, who has three children who attended the school.

The Hernández is among more than 300 schools nationwide, including a handful in Massachusetts, that teach in two languages. Such schools have grown in popularity even as advocates for restrictions on immigrant rights have successfully limited the teaching of subjects in languages other than English in some states. In Massachusetts, where voters approved dismantling bilingual education for English language learners seven years ago, the Legislature allowed schools like the Hernández to persist because of its dual mission.

Ideally, these schools are evenly divided between students who are native Spanish speakers and native English speakers. At the Hernández, about 66 percent of students did not speak English as their first language; 87 percent of the student body is Latino, according to the school.

The Hernández, which opened in 1971 to serve the city's growing Puerto Rican community, introduced dual-language instruction when the facility was relaunched four years later as a citywide magnet school. The switch enabled the Hernández to preserve its founding mission while complying with court-ordered desegregation. The program has proven popular; more than 200 students are on a waiting list this year.

Students in lower grades receive instruction in Spanish three days a week and in English two days a week, while literacy classes are in their native languages. Students in the upper grades rotate languages every two weeks.

"It's not your run-of-the-mill school," said Margarita Muñiz, the principal. "It requires a lot of work and dedication."

In a third-grade science class, students said they liked learning another language.

"When I came here, I never thought I would learn Spanish; it sounded so different," said Shaina Jewett-Wolf of Jamaica Plain.

Across the room, Amy Ortiz said she knew little English in kindergarten.

"My parents only speak Spanish," Amy, of Dorchester, said in perfect English. "Sometimes I translate for my mom."