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District reports gains and gaps for multilingual learners; family resource centers report rising need
Summary
Multilingual education staff said multilingual learners make up 19% of district students but trail peers on Smarter Balanced and WIDA measures; Family and Community Resource Centers reported growing food insecurity and housing instability, with nearly 1,000 students identified as experiencing homelessness and expanded pantry activity.
Director of Multilingual Education Veronica Magalanes presented assessment and program data showing multilingual learners represent 19% of Evergreen students and continue to be a priority for targeted support. On Smarter Balanced assessments she reported that 30% of all students demonstrate grade‑level math proficiency compared with 13.2% of multilingual learners; in English language arts she noted 37% of all students versus 9.6% of multilingual learners. Veronica also reported WIDA-based English language development progress and said only 6.4% of multilingual learners transitioned out of services in the measurement period.
"Multilingual learners are highly capable," Veronica said, adding the district will prioritize family advisory groups, dual‑language literacy monitoring and expanded coaching cycles to accelerate progress.
Melanie Green followed with a Family & Community Resource Centers (FCRC) update. She said the FCRCs operate 10 school-based food pantries monthly (nearly 4,000 visits last year) and distribute more than 117,000 pounds of food and 15,000 weekend food bags; the district currently sends home about 500 weekend bags each week. Melanie noted partnerships with Clark County Food Bank, SHARE and other nonprofits and said the outreach staff identify nearly 1,000 students experiencing homelessness across more than 600 families. She described increased demand after SNAP benefit disruptions and detailed partner efforts to double deliveries and pilot rapid‑response alerts to match immediate needs with donors.
Board members thanked the presenters and recognized the outreach coordinators honored earlier in the meeting. The presentation closed with a reminder that further TLE work (literacy program details and a fall sports review) will appear at an upcoming meeting.
