Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Public champions English program

Thousands of dollars are pledged to help keep a roof over a valued Pinellas County schools service.

By NORA KOCH
Published June 5, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - Free English classes will stay in the city for the next year, thanks to an outpouring of support from the community.

More than $12,000 was pledged in less than two weeks to keep the Pinellas County schools program for students learning English as a second language in an office building on Athens Street, said City Commissioner Robin Saenger.

"The fact that the community is so connected to what's happening here, it's not really surprising," said Saenger, who volunteers at the school. "People can sense when something is working and is really valuable."

Supporters scrambled to collect rent money last month when teacher Jean Cook learned that county funding to cover rent would dry up after this year. Unless the city or community intervened, school officials said the program would have to pack up and move to a rent-free classroom in Oldsmar.

With nearly 150 students a year, the Tarpon Springs school is one of the largest of the 13 English for Speakers of Other Languages programs offered by Pinellas County schools. Many regular students said they wouldn't be able to continue learning English if it moved because of transportation barriers. Most of the program's students come from Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor and Holiday, said Cook, a Pinellas teacher for 34 years who has run the school for about a decade.

The program was first housed in an old school building, but it had to leave that location when it was knocked down to build a new elementary school, Sargent said. In the past few years the program was moved to its current home in the Athens Executive Center off Alt. U.S. 19.

Donations will cover a year's rent, said Laura Sargent, supervisor of adult, community and work force education for Pinellas County schools. There are no guarantees after that, she said.

"As long as they can pay for it, they can stay there," Sargent said, noting she was heartened by elected officials' support for the program.

After this year the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College could possibly offer free space, or the school could stay put if there is enough money to pay rent, she said.

The city received donations totaling more than $9,600, said city finance director Arie Walker. Saenger said she heard from a local businessman who offered to cover the balance.

Saenger said she took a call from an English language foundation in Washington, D.C., offering support. The new commissioner also reached out to corporate headquarters of local businesses asking for help.

Maryanne Fisher, director of special care at Balmoral Assisted Living in Palm Harbor, saw a St. Petersburg Times article about the effort and contacted Saenger. About a half dozen of her employees are non-native, but now fluent, English speakers, Fisher said, and she has seen the value of such programs.

"I was touched," Fisher said of the program. "We have a great deal of staff having English as a second language. I was just really wanting to help people better themselves."

Fisher petitioned her company to make a $200 donation, and some employees have followed suit, she said. Support like Fisher's is coming in strong now, Saenger said.

"When it rains it pours," she said. "I'd hate to put the brakes on it."

The money is necessary, Cook said, but the publicity has had an even greater effect.

"It also has promoted an awareness for our program," she said. "New students are coming in."

--Nora Koch can be reached at 727 771-4304 or nkoch@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 5, 2005, 02:15:25]