Speakers urge SLPS to reinstate free swim lessons; counselor asks delay to newcomer-program change

Two members of the public addressed the board during the moved-up public-comment period, urging the district to either restore a swimming-lessons program or delay a planned reduction to the newcomer program timeline.

Velma Bailey told the board she and others have run a no-cost swimming lessons program for district children for two years and that more than 100 charter students had signed up for lessons this year. Bailey said she believed the district’s legal office misunderstood the program and asked the district to reconsider a recent legal determination that halted the lessons. Bailey cited public-health data to support the safety case for lessons: “Drowning is easily preventable with water safety and swimming lessons,” she told the board, and she said the CDC recommends access to basic swimming and water-safety instruction.

Margaret Hannah, a school counselor at Naheed Chapman New American Academy, asked the board to delay implementing a planned change that would shorten newcomer-program placement from two years to one year at all levels. Hannah said the proposed timetable would force counselors to transition large cohorts of newcomer students more quickly than is feasible; she told the board she is currently responsible for transitioning roughly 332 elementary students and argued that rushed transitions would undermine counselors’ ethical obligations. Hannah cited the American School Counselor Association ethical standard A.1 in urging that families be included in the decision and that the district honor the two-year expectation families were given when they enrolled.

Board members acknowledged the comments and staff said legal and program offices would review the issues raised and follow up with signatories and the board as appropriate.