BILINGUAL
OPPORTUNITY
FOR YOUNG
LEARNERS
Spanish Immersion Program
to Debut at Kerr
A
brand-new school isn’t the
only thing that students
at Kerr Elementary will
be getting during the
2019-2020 school year. The district’s
Spanish Immersion pilot program will
also be housed there.
The program, which will be open to
current kindergartners from all four
elementary schools, will be limited to
25 students. Each school will receive a
number of spaces in a random selection
based on a ratio of the number of
students enrolled in each building.
Students who do not currently attend
Kerr will be bused to the school.
Eighty to 100 percent of the instruction
will be provided in Spanish. Special
classes, such as art and music, will be in
English, as will lunch and recess.
The Spanish Immersion program is
the only one of its kind in Allegheny
County, said Ashley Constantine, Ed.D.,
Fox Chapel Area’s executive director of
elementary education and instruction.
“We wanted to offer a program that
was completely unique to Western
Pennsylvania that would give our
students an edge academically,” Dr.
Constantine said. “The goals of the
Spanish Immersion program are to
promote high levels of academic
achievement, to develop age-
appropriate language acquisition in both
English and Spanish, and to cultivate
cross-cultural competencies in our
students.”
The inaugural class will be taught by
Alexis Bergau, who currently teaches
second grade at Kerr. Mrs. Bergau
brings an extensive background in
Spanish immersion to the program.
She studied in Mexico, was a student-
teacher in a school that’s 99 percent
Spanish-speaking, and spent the bulk
of her career as a teacher at the Ada
The Fox Chapel Area School District held two rounds of parent information sessions to discuss the
implementation of the Spanish Immersion pilot program.
Vista Spanish Immersion School in
Ada, Michigan. Since coming to the
Pittsburgh area, she’s taught Spanish
at Pittsburgh Public Schools and at La
Escuelita Arcoiris, an early childhood
Spanish immersion school in Squirrel
Hill.
“I have always loved language and
teaching, but now more than ever I feel
called to help create global learners.
Imparting compassion, cultural
sensitivity, and an awareness of the
weight that language carries are charges
I take very seriously,” Mrs. Bergau said.
“I can’t wait for the day when parents
start telling me that their child has been
dreaming in Spanish.”
Once the first-graders enrolled in the
initial Spanish Immersion class become
second-graders, a new first-grade class
will begin. Eventually, the program will
be first grade through fifth grade.
To be eligible for admission into
the Spanish Immersion program,
students must meet Fox Chapel Area’s
readiness criteria. English also must
be the primary language spoken in the
student’s home.
A random selection process to fill
the seats in the Spanish Immersion
program will be held on June 6, 2019.
Interested parents and guardians
can find additional resources on the
district’s Spanish Immersion website at
si.fcasd.edu, or e-mail Dr. Constantine at
[email protected].
FOX CHAPEL AREA
❘
WINTER 2018
11