Submitted by Sandy Chenault, Jul 28, 2007 08:48

I am a teacher. I have taught PreK/K children for 27 years. I have taught in Alvarado, Texas for 15 of those years. I am ESL certified. I have loved children no matter what color skin or what language they speak for all of those years. While I was away this summer a letter came to my house from our superintentant. It states that in my morning PreK class I am being replaced by a Bilingual teacher. My reward for that is I can go to the Alternative School and teach wayward high schoolers instead. I have no idea what classes or how many classes I am being asked to teach. The way I see it I am being thrown out of my job of so many years because I speak English in America. I am told this decision is based on a mandate from TEA. We do not have the numbers to do this. I had only two children who "might" have needed that extra support. Not enough for a new program when those children are invited to the program in town that is already established. Something is wrong in America. I believe it is wrong to throw out one culture to accomodate another. Because this happened to me during th summer I have had no luck in finding another position elsewhere. All applications come back to me saying those positions were already filled. Teachers are hired in the Spring. I am devastated!! This is clearly wrong...But there's more to this story. I had 33 students this past year. 13 were ESL. By the end of the year almost every child happliy chattered in English at group time and all but two were absolutley ready to move to the next grade and do well. One of those two came late in the year. The other was a shy little boy who was speaking happily in English to his best friend but had not opened up at group time yet. He will probably be fine next year. Here's the thing. EVERY ESL child was invited to summer school. I'll go a step further to say badgered. The assistent principal kept sending notices (which began in sealed envelopes) to insist they come. Most really did not need summer school. Yet I asked about the other children who really did need summer school. I was only told in an email that she would get back to me. She never did and not one of those children got to go even though he/she needed it. Children who needed extra help did NOTget it. Our taxes paid for this.

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