Sisters welcomes Hispanic population

Last updated Oct 31, 2006 12:0pm0

Central Oregon demographics are rapidly changing with the influx of new residents to the area. Some new transplants are from within the United States; others are from outside the country. The fastest growing segment of the population in this area is Hispanic, and contrary to xenophobic perceptions most are here legally.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the Hispanic/Latino ethnic group has grown by 30 percent in Deschutes County between the year 2000 and the year 2005 and nearly doubled in size between 1990 and 2005. This growth has left most local residents trying to figure out how to integrate the Hispanics into the community, so that they become a part of the rich diversity of our cultural heritage and not a subculture sitting on the outside.

The Sisters School District (SSD) is taking a proactive stance in handling the increase in its foreign student population. The English Language Learning (ELL) program is a vehicle that is used by the SSD to address the needs of students who are lacking English language skills.

According to Tim Comfort, SSD Human Resources Director, "We evaluate students for the ELL program on a scale of one to five, where a 'one' is a student who has no English skills and 'five' is a student that has only minor deficiencies."

Currently, the students within the ELL program are about 80 percent Hispanic, and some are level-one students.

The federally mandated No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the percentage of students testing at grade level in reading and writing with the benchmark of every student in America reaching proficiency by 2014. In order for a school district to keep in good standing and retain its federal funding, every school must meet the AYP requirements as well as subgroups - including ELL students - within the district. This places school districts in areas experiencing strong growth with non-native English speakers at a competitive disadvantage.

Many ELL learners who are just beginning to grasp simple English vocabulary are struggling to keep up with math, science and world history lessons, despite high IQs and a desire to learn. And therein lies a growing problem facing SSD and other school districts across the country. How does the school best educate a child who lacks English skills but is still required to achieve in accord with state and federal mandates.

Comfort addresses the steps that the SSD is taking:

"We are trying to get Spanish speaking volunteers to help with homework, just translating or even just supporting around the school. We are trying to get our staff more trained and encouraging them to take Spanish coursework," he said.

Comfort has personally decided that he wants to be a part of the solution and began taking Spanish classes several months ago to improve his linguistic skills.

"We only have three maybe four out of a staff of 160 that could be considered fluent in Spanish," Comfort said. "It is our hope to expand our base of bilingual teachers and not only those that speak Spanish. There are other languages that are represented in our student body, as well."

It is not only the schools and other governmental agencies that have needed to join in finding a solution for the problems posed by our rich cultural diversity. (See related story, page 35). Area businesses and churches are also being challenged.

Father Richard Ley of St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church is attacking the problem head on. He has formed at least one committee specifically to analyze the needs and take steps to allow for the integration. The initial outreach will be providing the church hall for an adult class on Thursday evenings. The first class will be "English as a Second Language" for adults who wish to improve their verbal and written English skills.

Father Ley is reluctant to start a mass in Spanish as he wants the Hispanics to be a part of the parish and is concerned that it could contribute to keeping them separated.

"I don't want to create a parish within a parish," he said.

However, he is looking at the possibility of having portions of the mass bilingual, as well as a bible study and prayer group.

The choir at St. Edward's has historically had some bilingual hymns on the docket, and it will likely be increasing their use in the mix. The more astute members of the congregation who struggle with the pronunciation of the unfamiliar words and sounds have recognized that area Hispanics are having a much greater problem surviving every day attempting English.

Coping with emergencies — in Spanish

The growth of the Hispanic population in the Sisters area is not without its social and logistical challenges. Emergencies are no exception - sometimes posing serious threats that involve matters of life and death.

Imagine the aggravation faced by a non-English speaker who is trying to find help in an emergency. Deschutes County is looking to the future and has already taken some steps to insure the safety of all citizens, regardless of ethnicity or native language. However, the county also recognizes that the solutions they have at hand are only a band-aid on a much more serious problem. (See related story, page 1.)

There is a shortage of bilingual staff to answer 911 calls and so the county subscribes to a service that provides translations. When a call is received in a language that is not understood by the operator, the operator immediately contacts the service which, in turn, provides a translator. A conference call ensues that allows for near-simultaneous translations.

The time it takes to establish the conference call is generally less than one minute; however, when seconds can make a difference in the outcome of an emergency situation, this solution is still only a make-do patch for the problem.

Dan Bilyeu, a watch commander with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, addressed some of the problems that the sheriff's office faces.

"There are not very many of us that speak Spanish so we enlist the help of other agencies when we need assistance," he said. "For example, the state police has helped us with officers who speak Spanish."

Redmond and Bend police departments have also proved helpful when the sheriff's office has a team that is facing an emergency and there is no Spanish speaker on the team. Some of the officers are taking Spanish to improve their ability to respond, and the sheriff's department has given financial incentives to the officers to learn another language.

Bilyeu added, "They have to be certified in the language to earn the pay incentives, so knowing a few words of street Spanish doesn't qualify."

The Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District has found its own way to work around the challenges posed by the increasing Hispanic population.

Gary Lovegren, an EMT shift commander, says, "I actually started taking Spanish. I felt it was important to be able to communicate at a better level. My children have been a big help with pronunciation as they have taken Spanish in school, and I think they actually speak it fairly well."

Lovegren remarked, "Some of the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) speak a little Spanish, but basically we use phrase books to try to establish basic communications, and it isn't an ideal situation.

The EMTs have discussed the problem and are hoping that they might get some volunteers to help, but the problem is that most of the native Spanish speakers in the area work so hard they don't have a lot of time to spend as volunteers."

Lovegren could not say enough about people's willingness to help: "We might respond to a car wreck, and perhaps there is a Hispanic victim. We always will ask, does anyone speak Spanish, and generally there is someone in the crowd that does. We just tell them to come on over and help."

He concluded, "We have actually been really lucky so far. I hope that we can solve this problem before we have a situation that ends badly."