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Committee flags language-access funding as light for district’s multilingual families
Summary
A committee member said $5,000 budgeted for interpretation and translation appears insufficient for roughly 173 limited-English students and families speaking other languages; staff said the amount covers interpretation/translation only and described bilingual staff and a stipend program.
A committee member called attention to language-access funding in the proposed budget and questioned whether $5,000 for interpretation and translation services is adequate given district demographics. The member said the district has roughly 1,458 students, with 11.88% limited English proficient (about 173 students) and roughly 24% of families using a home language other than English, and added: "That feels like not a lot of resources for 173 students."
District staff clarified the $5,000 line covers interpretation and translation services only — not English-language-development programs — and described additional supports: ELD teachers (many bilingual), classified and certified bilingual staff, a family-and-community liaison and a bilingual stipend for staff who demonstrate proficiency. Staff said the district seeks to hire more bilingual personnel and runs a "grow your own" program to encourage local recruitment. Committee members asked staff to better correlate the percentage of families, the number of bilingual staff and the dollars budgeted for language access in future materials.
A committee member said they will continue to press for increased language-access funding in future budgets and staff agreed to include clearer breakout information in the posted budget backup.
