CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Board of Education has to make more cuts. Cincinnati Public Schools was $13.6 million over budget and still has to cut $9.7 million before the next school year.
One cut CPS has made is eliminating the ESL (English as a Second Language) manager. The district confirmed to WCPO 9 News there are nearly 5,600 students from pre-K to grade 12 in the ESL program — more than 15% of the total student population in CPS.
Santa Maria Community Services of Cincinnati previously wrote to the board asking members not to cut this position. Some employees are worried about what could happen to some of the families they serve.
Jazmine Nunez, bilingual office coordinator for Santa Maria, works with hundreds of ESL families in CPS and knows firsthand what that's like because she experienced it, too. She arrived in Cincinnati from Laredo, Texas with her father when she was 3. Her father was originally from Mexico, and both of them knew very little English.
"Spanish being my first language ... he definitely had a language barrier as well," Nunez said.
Now, she helps hundreds of families within CPS at Santa Maria navigate their new country, city and school district.
"They're definitely very confused. A lot of families that come through here have come there from Colombia or Guatemala or Mexico," Nunez said. "They're 15, 14 and they're so confused. I'm like, 'It's OK, I can speak Spanish to you. And they just smile.'"
Cincinnati's ESL program got Nunez up to speed and she's seen how it's helped other families adapt. When employees at Santa Maria found out about the elimination of the ESL manager, they thought about what could happen next.
"More families are going to be lost and they may not know why that's the case," said Hillary Williams, director of supportive services at Santa Maria. "They kind of lose that sense of direction."
Francesa Phillis, the supervisor coordinator for Santa Maria's "Stable Families" program, said it could impact students' education.
"Now they're really going to suffer from the low literacy rates, and also truancy. I can see this going in multiple different scenarios," Phillis said. "Loss of scholarships, loss of resources — our families are going to fall through the cracks 100%, and the families who came here to better the lives of their children, I have a feeling a lot of the kids are not going to get the education that they need."
Because of that, Williams said their staff members will need to be ready for an increased demand in ESL learning.
"Stay in constant communication with the public schools to make sure that we can help out wherever possible," said Williams.
