Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Parent-advocate urges Ocean View board to halt 'dilution' of DLI program and pause admin hire
Loading...
Summary
Dr. Lucia Perales told the Ocean View School District board that making Spanish electives optional is harming Dual Language Immersion (DLI) students and urged trustees to pause a proposed assistant superintendent hire and redirect funds to bolster DLI access.
Dr. Lucia Perales, an educator and parent, urged the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees on March 24 to reverse what she called a ‘‘dilution’’ of the district’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program at Mesa View and to prioritize student access over administrative expansion.
Perales said the district’s change to make the Spanish elective optional forces students to choose between Spanish and enrichment classes such as band or leadership, ‘‘diluting their language immersion by 50%.’’ She also said she has filed two formal complaints alleging structural denial of elective access for DLI students.
‘‘This is a false choice that compromises their path to state seal of biliteracy,’’ Perales said. She told trustees the district’s own second interim report shows roughly $7,400,000 in restricted supplemental funds earmarked for DLI support and argued those funds could be used now instead of hiring an assistant superintendent. ‘‘Please stop the dilution of our DLI program, reject the adoption of model, and use your Goal 1 funds to finalize a zero period,’’ she said.
Board President Gina Clayton Tarvin acknowledged Perales’s remarks and told her the board would hear her concerns. The superintendent and other administrators did not offer a direct rebuttal in the public-comment exchange; Superintendent Julianne Hofer had earlier outlined LCAP revisions and described steps to expand Spanish 1 consistently across middle schools after receiving Prop 28 funding.
Perales returned to the podium later in the meeting and asked the board to place a ‘‘state of the DLI program’’ update on a future agenda so the district could demonstrate how policy and funding changes are translating to student access. She said some parents felt targeted when raising concerns and that transparency was needed.
The board did not announce any immediate policy reversal at the meeting. Trustees did approve multiple routine policy and administrative items and moved forward with staffing and program approvals elsewhere on the agenda.
