Student and parents praise Legato Spanish program during public comments

Students and parents used the public comment period to praise the Legato Spanish program, saying it gave children bilingual skills and broader cultural exposure.

Kayla Parsons, a seventh grader at Central Middle School, said, “Thank you to Legato, I can speak in 2 languages.” She told listeners that a church mission trip to Puerto Rico gave her a chance to use her Spanish, and she estimated that about 95% of people she encountered there did not know English.

A parent who identified their children as enrolled in BCSC said the academic work looked like other elementary-level assignments but the difference was that students did it in Spanish. “They’re being asked to think about critical questions in Spanish,” the parent said, adding that students were also expressing emotions in another language and that bilingualism felt like a lasting part of their children’s identities rather than merely a way to earn college credits.

Another commenter said the program had helped them learn English and Spanish and had opened future opportunities. The transcript includes likely transcription errors (references to “Colorado” and “Lotto”); in context those appear to be garbled references to the Legato program mentioned elsewhere in the comments.

Speakers repeatedly framed the program as immersion-style language instruction operating within the Bartholomew Con School Corp (BCSC) context, saying it promoted both language skills and cultural awareness. The remarks were delivered as public comment; the transcript contains no motions or votes related to the program.

The public comment period ended without any formal action recorded in the provided transcript.