Laura Marquez, principal at Fair Sight and coordinator of the district’s Dual Language Immersion program, told the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District board on June 4 that the DLI program is expanding and that the district is following a structured 90/10 model in the early grades.

"By the end of the program, which is sixth grade, students will be able to understand, speak, read, and write, both English and Spanish," Marquez said, summarizing the program’s bilingualism, academic achievement and sociocultural competence goals.

The program allocates about 90% Spanish instruction in preschool, transitional kindergarten and kindergarten and gradually moves toward a 50/50 split by fourth through sixth grade. Marquez said the district uses separate, grade-aligned curriculum materials in each language and maintains a language allocation plan to keep instruction consistent from grade to grade.

Marquez said the district is aligning assessments and materials: teachers will use Benchmark Advance in Spanish and i-Ready in math aligned to the district’s new math curriculum. She described an equivalent to the English early-reading program in Spanish and ongoing professional development with a consultant from the California Association for Bilingual Education.

On program growth, Marquez said the district currently has preschool and TK cohorts continuing in DLI, two kindergarten classes and two first-grade classes that are full. She said the district will add two second-grade DLI classes next year and anticipates adding a TK DLI class. Marquez said the district has waiting lists for some grades and that roughly half of entrants come from outside the Valley Oaks attendance area.

In response to a board question, Marquez said the district is aiming to balance classrooms about 50/50 between students with English-dominant backgrounds and students with Spanish-dominant backgrounds because that mix improves learning opportunities. She described classroom interactions and said children typically use their dominant language in unstructured play but often pick up words from peers in the other language.

David Nelson, principal at Valley Oaks, joined Marquez for the presentation and confirmed the district is tracking reading performance in Spanish. Marquez said DLI students' scores on the Spanish DRA (district reading assessment) meet grade benchmarks at high percentages, though she noted the Spanish and English DRAs are not identical because of language differences.

The presentation included details on parent outreach; Marquez said the district held in-person and livestreamed parent meetings, and plans to summarize spring community feedback at a June study session. She also highlighted teacher recruitment and training: the district has provided multi-day professional development, and two Valley Oaks teachers with Spanish teaching experience will staff new classes.

The board heard questions about enrollment, waiting lists and classroom composition. Marquez said preschool and TK registration is ongoing and that kindergarten demand could create waiting lists if additional sections are not added.

The district did not take a formal board vote on the DLI program during the meeting; the presentation served as an annual report and notice of planned class additions and continued professional development.