Kenneth Butterly said...

Dr. Clay,

Chicago to Granada is around 4,500+ miles flying the great circle route.

If I have the story somewhat correct, this is what I believe. EMSD#63

couldn’t find enough “qualified” individuals at a local job fair, so two of our
finest traveled all the way to Spain last April to fill ten recently opened
ESL/Bi-Lingual and Spanish teaching positions. In the end, six “highly
qualified” Spaniards were hired leaving four remaining positions to be filled
by other “highly qualified” individuals. And those positions have now been
filled.

US Education schools graduate thousands of “highly qualified” ESL/Bi-

Lingual Spanish teachers each year.

Now I would have assumed, that Ms. Glickman and Ms. Centanni, when
unable to find “highly qualified” candidates via local job fair, conducted a
national search.

I would have also assumed Ms. Glickman and Ms. Centanni, failing that
search, contacted authorities in the Mexican Government in their attempt to
fill those positions. Given an opportunity, I am sure the Government of
Mexico would have been glad to meet the Spanish offer.

Mexico also graduates highly qualfied teachers; many Spanish/English

speakers. I suspect a goodly number of them would have loved to come to
EMSD#63 to energetically and enthusiasticly work to teach English to their
fellow countrymen living the “American Dream” and Spanish to district
English-speaking students. . Mexico is our next door neighbor, NAFTA
partner and friend.

Besides, Mexico City was only 1,675+ miles away.

Unfortunately, based on statements by the District, those assumptions would

have been wrong. It appears at this moment, no major effort was made to
initially find non-local candidates nationally, from Mexican or other North,
South or Central American sources in an attempt to find culturally and
dialectically compatible teachers.

I had dinner the other night with a highly qualified and simpatico
ESL/Spanish teacher and her husband in Racine, Wisconsin. My friend’s wife
is a devout Packer fan and graduate of the University of Madrid with 12 years
of teaching experience. Living and learning her craft in Spain gave her a
perspective and an opinion I had to honor. My friends reviewed all of the
published comments to date from both of our blog-sites including the video
of the July 7th Board presentation. Based on her first-hand knowledge and
experiences of Spanish life and culture, and real-world teaching experience
with children from Mexico, and Central and South America, she thought we
were crazy.

Dr. Clay, Ms. Glickman and Ms. Centanni believe your new hires will
experience “culture shock.”

Spaniards are phonetically and culturally different from the immigrants they
will serve. Just one of the many speech differences that students will have to
contend with is the fact that the subject pronoun “vosotros” doesn’t exist
outside of Spain. As far as our immigrant population is concerned, in their
home countries, Spaniards are not always looked on sympathetically. There
are historical problems revolving around the subjects of perceived arrogance,
class and trust that date back centuries. Your students and their non-college-
educated parents from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua,
Equator, Puerto Rico and Mexico, etc. very likely will not have the same
warm and fuzzy feelings regarding Spain or her teachers that you have. Our
local McDonald’s restaurants have over the last decade made a concerted
effort to hire our newest Spanish-speaking immigrants. Over the years, I’ve
come to know some of them and their families.

I think your new employees from Spain are going to be in for quite a cultural
shock indeed.
Lastly, husbanding money Dr. Clay, is not the same as hoarding one’s
money. In this case, it’s about protecting and maximizing the District’s
revenue and making right spending choices. Sometimes, walking away from
a freebee is the right choice. Remember the costly free Gym Equipment
debacle.

As far as I’m concerned Dr. Clay, the die is cast, the money’s spent.

July 15, 2010 4:51 PM