PITTSBURGH — Parents of students who attend Banksville Elementary School say they were surprised when they found out that the district is cutting half of the school’s English Language Development teachers.
They say it doesn’t make sense to them because over half of the students who attend Banksville don’t speak English as their first language.
Kaila Jendrzejwski says she’s looking for answers from Pittsburgh Public Schools after finding out 3 of 6 English Language Development teachers at Banksville Elementary are being reassigned starting Monday.
Jendrzejwski said, “What is the plan? How do we keep moving forward in this school when it’s known to be an ESL school and you took 3 of those teachers away, so how does that work now?”
English is not the first language for over half of the students who go here.
“I went to Banksville 2 years ago. I knew all the teachers there and I think it’s not fair that teachers are getting kicked out,” said Mais, who only spoke Arabic when she started at the elementary school. “That was me but ever since I met those teachers, I learned how to learn English.”
Friday, Channel 11 asked Pittsburgh Public Schools why it made the decision to reassign ELD teachers throughout the district.
The district says it’s due to an annual class size adjustment process known as leveling. PPS says the practice is to ensure staffing aligns with student enrollment and instructional needs, saying the three ELD teachers were reassigned to other schools with growing ELD populations.
“From my perspective, I don’t know what research was done. I’ve asked questions, I haven’t gotten answers yet,” Jendrejwski explained.
Jendrzejwski says she emailed the superintendent but hasn’t heard back yet. She’s worried that the district’s decision puts too much on the teachers.
She continued, “So in the 5th grade class, if there are 28 kids, now that main teacher is responsible for all 28 students, no matter what they speak, no matter what they learn. that’s how it’s going to be and that’s overwhelming as a parent to know that.”
Pittsburgh Public Schools says that Banksville Elementary School continues to have 12 certified ELD teachers on staff.
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