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Proviso 209 doubles multilingual staff, funds bilingual books and places coordinators in buildings
Summary
The district said it has nearly doubled multilingual staffing to 35 positions, purchased more than $400,000 in bilingual books and placed multilingual coordinators at Proviso West and Proviso East to provide in‑building language supports.
Proviso Township High School District 209 reported an expansion of multilingual services meant to support the district’s approximately 25% of students identified as English learners.
Demetrius Talieris, who introduced himself as the multilingual director, told the board the district nearly doubled multilingual staff from 18 last year to 35 this year and used board‑approved funds to purchase more than $400,000 worth of books in languages needed by students. He said the district has embedded multilingual coordinators at each comprehensive high school ‘‘so the students feel like they have somebody to go to that understands them.’’ He named Miguel Lopez as the coordinator at Proviso West and Lenore Burton as the coordinator at Proviso East.
Talieris described the department’s use of the 12 components for compliance monitoring and said initial placement decisions use ACCESS test scores: "the threshold for determining their English language proficiency is 4.8. Once the student achieves a score of 4.8, they are reclassified into a category of former ELs," he said. Staff said ACCESS scores are one input among others (teacher input, course performance and additional measures) used to determine bilingual versus bridging placements.
The district also added two coordinators and hired an EL resource teacher for the Math and Science Academy to support English learners there. Talieris said the multilingual department provides professional development, placement management and supports for visiting international teachers.
Staff distributed parent notification letters, in English and Spanish, describing criteria for identifying English learners and the district’s programming; staff emphasized transparency in communications with families. Talieris said the district will annually capture a self‑assessment snapshot and that this presentation represents the first full year of using the Elevation tool after a partial rollout earlier in the year.
No formal policy votes were recorded at this meeting; the presentation was informational and staff said it will return with data and implementation updates.
