Clover Park updates bilingual instruction, launches new dual‑language classrooms and heritage courses

Superintendent Banner and Director Susie Contos updated the Clover Park School District Board of Directors on the district’s Transitional Bilingual Instructional Program (TBIP), newcomer programming and the rollout of new dual‑language and heritage‑language courses funded in part by DoDEA grants.

Contos said multilingual learners (MLs) are students whose primary language at home is not English and that the district identifies students for services via the state’s home language survey and the WIDA English language proficiency placement test. “Students who do not meet the English proficiency threshold qualify for support through TBIP,” Contos said, adding that students continue to receive services until they demonstrate proficiency and then are monitored for two years after exiting the program. Contos said the district provided 120 to 150 minutes per week of dedicated language support for each student who qualifies for MLL services.

Contos told the board that in school year 2425 the district enrolled 2,073 students identified as multilingual learners across households where 58 languages other than English were spoken; 194 of those students exited the program that year based on WIDA scores. She described classroom and service delivery models used by the district — supportive mainstream (pull‑in/push‑in support), co‑teaching for the most intensive needs, support facilitation and a consultation model — and explained the newcomer program, which provides intensive foundational English instruction and transition supports (elementary pull‑out; secondary 55–90 minute class blocks).

Separately, Contos reviewed expansion of dual‑language and world language immersion offerings supported by the DoDEA 2024 Pathways to Biliteracy grant and the 2021 DoDEA World Language Grant. The district added a kindergarten dual‑language classroom at 4 Heroes Elementary and world language immersion kindergarten classrooms at Carter Lake and Hillside elementary schools. An eighth‑grade applied algebra course for heritage Spanish speakers launched at Thomas Middle School, and Lakes High School offers a College in the High School Spanish course in partnership with Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) that allows students to earn transferable college credit.

Board members asked about long‑term sustainability if federal grant funding were reduced. Superintendent Banner said staffing positions for teachers and paraeducators are governed by the district’s collective bargaining agreement and that many bilingual teachers were existing employees paid with grant funds; if a grant ended the district would evaluate program scope in the context of the FY26 budget and follow collective bargaining procedures before any staffing changes. Banner said the district’s teaching and learning team and counsel would review options as federal funding volatility becomes clearer.

Contos and district staff described recruitment and staffing: each participating elementary school has a bilingual kindergarten teacher and bilingual family engagement paraeducator; middle schools use co‑teaching models for the heritage algebra course; high school staffing includes a world language teacher, bilingual paraeducator and a virtual PLU instructor. Staff noted professional development completed over the summer, including attendance at the Association of Two‑Way and Dual Language Education conference and materials such as Heggerty for Spanish phonemic awareness and Imagine Learning Español.

District staff said they will continue community outreach, family nights and principal‑led engagement to enroll balanced cohorts for immersion models (the decision to use 90/10 or other ratios was based on school‑level demographics). Contos closed by offering to follow up on specific family or staffing questions.

The presentation and board Q&A contained operational details and budget caveats but no formal board action on program adoption or funding.