There are only three public school dual immersion programs in San Luis Obispo County and the newest one is at Baywood Elementary School in Los Osos.
Hernan Hernandez is teaching the months of the year to his first graders.
“Have them love the language first, right? We do a lot of like dancing and singing,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez graduated from schools within the San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) and is now giving back.
“It’s been my dream to teach dual immersion,” added Hernandez.
Baywood Elementary School is the second school within the San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) to adopt a dual language immersion program.
“Pacheco’s a lottery system, and we’re at capacity within that program and have been for quite a while, so in 2020, Baywood Elementary School opened up to serve our coastal population as well,” said Stephanie Shepherd, the SLCUSD director of elementary learning and achievement.
Baywood Elementary serves around 340 students. According to Baywood Elementary Principal Kirstin May, about 275 students are part of the 90-10 dual language immersion model, which is in its third year.
“Our TK and kindergarten programs, 90% of their day is in Spanish and 10% of their day is in English, so that equates to about 30 minutes of the school day,” explained May. “Then starting in first grade, it’s 80-20, second is 70-30, and [third grade] 60-40. ”
Classrooms are a diverse mix of Spanish learners and native Spanish speakers like Sherlyn Morales.
“Teach my friends more in Spanish because almost like my whole class is, like, they only talk like English and sometimes they don’t understand,” said Morales.
The program is giving an academic foundation for students like Celia Gomez who are bicultural.
“They only speak to me in Spanish and that’s worked out quite, quite great for us,” said Jose Gomez, Celia’s father.
Gomez said this has allowed him to improve his own Spanish and view the language in a positive light.
“Definitely, it was a stigma to have to speak it, especially to translate at the hospital or all these administrative things when my parents didn’t know the [English] language ,” said Jose. “You carry that with you.”
Celia, who is in first grade, is embracing her Mexican American heritage.
“La muñeca, that’s one of my first favorite songs,” said Celia.
Principal May said Baywood Elementary School is making its curriculum also incorporate cultural elements by including traditions such as Día del Niño (Children’s Day) or Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).
“We follow the guiding principles for dual language instruction,” said May. “We really want to make sure that our students are receiving an education, whether culturally competent, and they’re achieving grade level in both Spanish and English. ”
Hispanic Heritage Month is a good example to push that cultural awareness.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of different songs like Selena, Celia Cruz and talking about Cesar Chavez,” added Hernandez.
The district is looking to further develop its dual immersion framework.
“We have some programs going at Laguna Middle School that are content classes that are delivered in Spanish to our students and we want to expand that to Los Osos Middle School as well, and up into the high school,” said Shepherd.
Despite a tough childhood, Hernandez hopes to inspire his students.
“My dad and mom, thank them like every day because they worked three jobs and put us through school and they always said you can be whoever you want to be,” said Hernandez.
Baywood Elementary School is planning to expand the program in the next two years to include fourth and fifth grades.
In early October, SLCUSD will be presenting its dual language immersion framework to the board.
