Before Charlie, Renton had few English as a Second Language classes. Renton Technical College and Fairwood Library were about it.
Then came Charlie Barlow. About two years ago he asked Karen Bergsvik, the City of Renton’s human services manager, if he could teach ESL in his Highlands neighborhood.
Sure, Bergsvik said, and she began looking for ESL programs in Renton that Barlow could join.
“At that time we didn’t want to invent an ESL class,” Bergsvik recalls. “We thought there had to be other organizations doing ESL we could hook into. But what I found in my research was there were no ESL classes in Renton to be hooked into.”
About the same time, then Mayor Kathy Keolker asked Bergsvik to determine Renton’s top human-services needs.
Bergsvik formed a group to confirm the validity of her top-four list.
ESL made Bergsvik’s list, along with affordable housing, homelessness and activities for youth.
Bergsvik then decided to focus on ESL.
“I thought ESL was something we could do to make a difference,” she said.
She started seeking organizations and volunteers, and ESL classes began forming.
Now, two years later, Renton has about 12 ESL classes, offered by a variety of organizations at a variety of locations.
Barlow was the first to teach one of those classes. He started about 1 1/2 years ago at North Highlands Community Center.
ESL wasn’t part of Bergsvik’s job before Barlow. But it wasn’t anyone else’s job either.
“I kid that Charlie got me into this,” Bergsvik says.
She’s had help since Charlie. The Renton ESL group meets monthly to discuss ESL in Renton. That group grew out of the human-services group Bergsvik formed after Mayor Keolker’s 2007 request. Bergsvik steers the group, along with representatives from Renton Technical College and the Renton School District.
The Renton Chamber of Commerce is a recent member, and employees from the area’s libraries and nonprofits regularly attend meetings.
Most of Renton’s non-RTC ESL classes are offered by organizations that Bergsvik brought to Renton, like Multi-Service Center, St. James ESL, Literacy Council, Ukranian Community Center and ReWA (Refugee Women’s Alliance).
The City of Renton allocated $11,500 for 2009 and 2010 to the Multi-Service Center for its ESL classes. No other agencies requested ESL funding from the city.
Bergsvik guesses that’s because ESL isn’t a core service for many agencies. Still, she says ESL is a “huge need” in Renton, with its ever-diversifying population.
That need will increase this spring, when RTC cuts almost half of its ESL classes. Classes will be reduced from 37 to 19, and ESL students from 925 to 475. Thirteen part-time teachers will be let go.
RTC’s spring reduction comes on the heels of its reduction of about 20 ESL classes during the current winter quarter. The cuts are part of the $884,000 RTC is cutting this school year. Even deeper cuts will likely come in various programs in the college’s next two-year budget cycle.
John Chadwick, RTC’s Dean of Basic Studies, called the ESL cuts “really devastating.”
“It’s about preparing our work force, and we lose a lot,” he added.
The college’s ESL classes have always been full, no matter how many classes added, Chadwick said. Full means 20-25 students.
“There’s just a huge number of people who need this,” Chadwick said.
Bergsvik would like that huge number of people to migrate to the various classes she helped start in Renton. Attendance has recently dropped.
Chadwick reckons some of his students will fill those classes. But the slower pace of those mostly volunteer classes could frustrate students accustomed to what he calls RTC’s “really intense program.”
In addition to filling the ESL classes at the city’s libraries and community centers, Bergsvik wants to recruit businesses to offer work-day ESL classes. The city received $50,000 from the state to fund those classes, which could serve as a state model.
An ESL class started after work hours at Service Linen in Renton last year, but didn’t last. So Bergsvik wants to try ESL classes during work hours.
Elizabeth Falconer, an ESL teacher at RTC, started teaching the first of those classes at Orca Bay Seafood, a seafood-processing facility in Renton. Her 23 students, from places like Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam, come to the English classes in the facility’s board room fresh from preparing seafood, many with showercaps still on.
Falconer taught English in Japan for 12 years before coming to RTC last fall. One of her RTC morning classes will be cut next spring.
Falconer, who’s had students land jobs because of her teaching, recognizes the value of ESL.
She calls RTC’s ESL cuts “astounding.”
“I think it’s really important,” she said of ESL. “It’s obvious it should be growing.”
The importance of ESL is what drives Charlie Barlow to teach. He started teaching ESL in 1990 in Edmonds and now teaches at the Central Highlands Community Center and a Kent library. He also trains tutors in Seattle and teaches citizenship preparation.
“It’s so much fun to do,” he says. “The best thing is when you see in somebody’s eyes or a smile that they get it. A light goes on. That’s the best reward.”
RENTON REPORTER, QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
“Is protecting English as a Second Language programs an important priority for the state?”
To vote, go to POLL
LANGUAGES OF RENTON
Languages primarily spoken at home in 25,524 Renton households, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates:
• English: 18,608 households
• Spanish: 1,716 households
• Other Indo-European languages: 1,507 households
• Asian and Pacific-Island languages: 3,062 households
ESL NUMBERS
• Using $50,000 from an emergency immigrant grant from the state, Renton School District is now offering an expanded number of community ESL classes. Most those classes are for parents of students attending schools in the district.
• As of December, 2,044 English Language Learner students attended schools in Renton School District. That’s out of 13,741 total students in the district.
• The number of ELL and ESL students served in Renton School District has increased by over 54 percent since 2000.
HOW TO HELP
• To find out how to teach or attend an ESL class in Renton, call the city’s Human Services Division at 425-430-6650.
• The Renton ESL group is open to new members. The group meets at various locations on the second Tuesday of each month from 8:30-10 a.m. The next meeting is March 8 at the Renton Community Services Office at 500 S.W. Seventh St., Suite B. For more information, call the city’s Human Services Division at 425-430-6650.
