The West Hempstead school district has been offering English as a New Language classes for students entering the country, teaching them to speak, read and write in a new language and helping integrate them into the local community.
Formerly known as English as a Second Language program, ENL classes are taught to students in kindergarten through the 12th grade at Chestnut Street School, Cornwell Avenue School, George Washington School and West Hempstead Secondary School.
Multilingual education programs became a state requirement for public schools in 1974 to accommodate students struggling with a language barrier in the classroom.
Jaclyn Klafter, a teacher at Chestnut Street School, has worked with elementary school English language learners in her general education classes for four years.
“We are here to support them in learning English while respecting their native language and allowing them to flourish,” Klafter said. “It’s very rewarding — in the beginning of the year, some of those students might come in not knowing any English at all, and by the end, you really see a great improvement.”
Debra Schiavo, a Chestnut Street School teacher for 18 years, co-teaches those classes with Klafter and instructs her own classes exclusively for English language learners.
“They really enjoy it,” Schiavo said. “They receive individualized attention — it’s a small group when I do my standalone sessions. I teach my class like any other class, because in kindergarten all the students are working on reading, writing, listening and speaking.”
Katie DiGregorio, the program’s director for five years, said, “We have a lot of students coming from various different countries all over the globe. We have students who speak a variety of different languages — Spanish, Urdu, Turkish, Russian and Chinese.”
The school district’s English as a New Language program educates, on average, 150 students per year, and students of different language levels receive different degrees of assistance.
The program focuses on integrating English language learners into general education classes, with a partnered instructor, and adds a 10th period during the school day for language education.
For students who need further instruction, the program places them in a class that teaches subjects in a more accessible way to help them reach their full potential, DiGregorio said.
Each year, the program holds a Thanksgiving luncheon and a spring international luncheon, allowing students and teachers time to connect and learn about each other’s backgrounds.
To help these students feel at home, instructors have partnered with the West Hempstead Public Library to coordinate field trips and informational sessions about the library’s resources.
“We do try to make sure that we’re making those community connections,” DiGregorio said. “So it’s a really nice way to get everybody involved in literacy, no matter what language you speak.”
Kelinda Sylvain, a 10th grader at West Hempstead Secondary School, arrived from Haiti as an eight grader in 2022. When she came to West Hempstead, she spoke no English, but because of the program, she is now proficient in a total of three languages, English, French and Haitian Creole.
She moved on from the English as a New Language program at the end of ninth grade after earning high marks on her language aptitude exam and is now enrolled in several Advanced Placement courses.
“I like AP Capstone because it pushed me to do more, and I am a shy person in general, but AP capstone has pushed me to speak in public and come out of my comfort zone,” Sylvain said.
Her AP Capstone class involves a large amount of college-level reading and research, culminating in her public speaking presentation to the Board of Education about her time at West Hempstead Secondary School.
“One of the best things is the teachers,” Sylvain said. “They will push you beyond what you think is your potential. The teachers celebrate what you bring to a class.
“I used to be shy,” she added. “When I had Ms. Ferguson in ninth grade, she pushed me to take a non-(English as a New Language) English class because she knew that I could do it.”
Edin Morales-Gomez, an 11th grader, came to the West Hempstead Secondary School from Guatemala in 2023 and became proficient in English through the program.
“I love that there are so many teachers in West Hempstead who want to help me achieve my goals and become successful,” he told the Herald.