[Editor’s Note: With the non-teachers union-driven controversy over the 26-year-old parent adjunct program at El Marino Language School growing by the hour, we present a letter from an El Marino parent emailed at 7 this morning and answered on the El Marino Yahoo Groups site by another parent, Sandi Levin, a former city official.]
Can someone please explain the specifics of the adjunct program?
I've been sending my kids to El Marino for 8 years, and give $500 to ALLEM(Advocates for Language Learning, ERl Marino) almost every year.
But I still only have a vague idea of how the adjunct thing works.
Sometimes there are adjuncts in the classroom, and sometimes there aren't. And they only seem to be in the lower grades, not the higher grades.
My questions are… how many adjuncts are there? What grades do they help? How long are they in the classroom? What kind of qualifications do they have? How much are they paid? That sort of thing.
I'm completely against the elimination of this program, but it will help to know details about the actual program before anyone fights to save it. Thanks.
Ms. Levin responds:
A few quick answers.
Hopefully, someone else will be able to tell you more.
1. Adjuncts are available to all classrooms. (On very rare occasions, a teacher may not wish to use the services offered by ALLEM, but I have only seen that a couple of times in my 10 years at EMLS.)
2. In lower grades they get a little less time than in higher grades, but the range used to be 1to 2 hours per day per class. Someone with more recent info might be able to update that stat…
3. The purpose of the adjuncts is to provide adult-level language modeling and conversation in the target language. For example, many teachers have the adjuncts discuss homework and give feedback to students in the target language. There is no District position that does this. Nor is there funding available to create one.
4. The adjuncts must be native speakers in the target language with good grammar and accents. Many have had teaching experience or credentials from other countries, but that is not required. As I understand it, virtually none of them meets union criteria for employment. So all would be fired if the union is able to take control of this program. Some have been with El Marino for many years and are familiar with course content, school rules, etc. And they are wonderful with our kids.
5. I don't know current pay but it isn't nearly as much as a teacher makes and is probably less than what union employees make… Because of confidentiality, I don't know whether ALLEM can announce individual employee salaries.
6. If the union succeeds, I believe these positions and this program would disappear altogether because most parents would not give to the District the way they give to ALLEM as a parent-run, parent-controlled organization. Most parents will not just give to the District and hope they use the money the way we want.
We give to ALLEM because we know who controls the money, that it is used for the direct benefit of our children in the classroom, that it can't be diverted and that the entire program is run on volunteerism, which keeps overhead to almost nothing.
We would have none of those assurances if we gave directly to the District. The threat to this program is VERY real and would be devastating to El Marino.
PLEASE send a letter or go to a School Board meeting to let the Board know that they must fight any effort to “unionize” parent volunteerism.
For information, ElMarino@yahoogroups.com
