Iowa

‘¿Habla español?’ Iowa schools look overseas to find Spanish teachers

Published

3 weeks ago

March 11, 2026

‘¿Habla español?’ Iowa schools look overseas to find Spanish teachers

The Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain helps schools find qualified Spanish teachers.
World language teaching positions are hard to fill in rural areas.

The sounds of Dallas Center-Grimes High School Spanish students singing “¿Por Que Te Vas?” by Jeanette with varying levels of gusto and prodding by teacher Antton Zuazu Hernández may seem like an unusual way to learn.

But the sing-along is how Zuazu Hernández, a native of Spain, helps engage his students and share his culture as part of a teacher-exchange program.

“I feel I’m a messenger in a way, and this is part of the program,” he said. “We’re expected to both bring our culture here and bring your culture back to Spain.”

Zuazu Hernández — who taught English in Spain — is among 26 bilingual teachers in Iowa as part of an exchange program between the Iowa Department of Education and Spain’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

“(The program) was created to address the shortage of qualified Spanish teachers in the state and helps expose students to different world cultures,” said Heather Doe, the department’s spokesperson. “… The Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain program has been very successful in helping schools, especially in rural communities, hire highly qualified Spanish teachers.”

Iowa has nearly 1,200 world language teachers in kindergarten through college, according to the Iowa World Language Association website.

Some foreign language teachers in Iowa moved to the U.S. and later obtained teaching credentials. Others were recruited to work in Iowa schools.

Iowa schools, including Waukee Community School District, even offer financial incentives as a recruitment tool for hard to fill positions.

“Many of them, like me, will arrive with teaching experience from our home countries, but in the process of validating the credentials in the U.S. we find obstacles,” said Elizabeth Bulthuis, a Waukee High School world languages teacher who immigrated from Ecuador in 2003, “and the validating of credentials also can be lengthy and costly, because of all the educational systems and how they are structured differently.”

Exchange program is beneficial to schools, superintendent

The Spain exchange program — which brings hundreds of teachers to schools across the U.S. — comes with several requirements.

The Spanish teachers must be certified in the language with at least two years of experience, Doe said. Additionally, candidates go through a vetting process at the federal, state and local levels. Teachers also attend a three-day state orientation.

Schools and districts participating in the program pay an $895 fee to offset licensing and orientation costs, Doe said.

The program is a blessing for rural areas struggling to fill positions teaching foreign language, special education, math and science.

“It’s very difficult to even get an applicant,” said Deron Stender, the superintendent at the rural Creston Community School District, “… When I say it’s difficult to even find (the candidates) they don’t exist. And if they do, they’re probably going to be in a larger metro, urban, suburban areas where there’s just more opportunities.”

St. Anthony’s conducts bilingual class for its students

St. Anthony’s Catholic school brings Spanish speaking teachers to the U.S. to teach students the language.

Zuazu Hernández taught Spanish and drove a bus at Creston during the 2024-25 school year. But falling enrollment and budget cuts resulted in his position being eliminated.

A program drawback is teachers only have three-year visas, he said.

“When you have a very good individual that comes to your district from a foreign country after the third year, you still have that need again,” Stender said. “So, we just open it back up to the same program, but you’re doing another refresh of the process, and while that’s a challenge, it’s still better than not having a teacher in the classroom.”

Not every world language teacher comes from Spain

Another issue schools have faced is filling teaching positions for immersion programs.

In the early 2000s, St. Anthony’s started a Spanish-immersion program after several families with children of Honduras and Guatemala descent wanted their kids to have a Catholic school education and maintain their connection to the Spanish language.

“A lot of teachers go to school to teach Spanish, but they go to school to teach it as a standalone Spanish class,” principal Jennifer Raes said. “… We were really searching for teachers that could come here and teach in any subject, just a regular teacher, but also has the skills of teaching in Spanish and English.”

Marisol Guerra, a Honduras native, came to the U.S. in 2010 to help start St. Anthony’s program. Guerra manage to come to the U.S. as part of that year’s Spain exchange program cohort.

More than a decade later, the school offers classes in English and an immersive track where 85% of the students’ day is spent learning in Spanish. While families were hesitant in the beginning to take part in the immersion program, there is now a waitlist of almost a dozen families.

“There was uncertainty, (but) they wanted their children to learn a second language,” Guerra said, “and they wanted without knowing, I think, they also were exposing them to other cultures and opening their minds to other things.”

The over the years, St. Anthony’s has employed teachers who moved to America from Spain, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The over representation of teachers from Spain likely is due to other countries not offering similar exchange programs, said Bulthuis, a member of the Iowa World Language Association.

It took several years for the veteran teacher — who came to Iowa in 2005 — to become credentialed to teach in the U.S. because she was not part of an exchange program.

“I think that world language teachers can be difficult to recruit because the pool of candidates is relatively small, so teachers need a strong language proficiency, cultural knowledge and all the teaching certifications,” said Bulthuis, who left Ecuador in 2003 because of the country’s financial crisis, “(but) many people who speak another language also have opportunity in other careers.”

Bulthuis does not recommend loosening the criteria to teach in Iowa but suggests improving or streamlining the process for an international teacher to obtain a state teaching license.

“… Not every Spanish speaking country is going to have (an exchange) program like that in place to help their community,” Bulthuis said,

Cultural exchange

Educators say employing international teachers goes beyond language skills.

“International educators can bring tremendous cultural and linguistic expertise to the classroom, which is an incredible skill and very valuable for students,” Bulthuis said.

That cultural exchange can carry over into a school’s lesson plans.

Zuazu Hernández often lets his American students’ interests drive what he teaches them about Spanish culture. These questions have ranged from wanting more insight into bullfighting, the Spanish school system, stereotypes and politics.

“Sometimes, they are more interested in me as a person, or the things I can tell them about Spain than the actual Spanish language,” he said, “but they have that curiosity that I think all teachers, we have to take advantage of.”

While reading “¡Viva el toro!” by Lisa Ray Turner and Blaine Ray, a novel about bullfighting, Zuazu Hernández talked to students about his family’s love of the cultural spectacle and how it is losing popularity in Spain because of how the bulls are treated.

Zuazu Hernández is open about his perspective on the practice to his students.

“To me, bullfighting is not worth sustaining just because it’s a tradition — traditions are not always good or acceptable — but rather because it’s an art, and it expands the depth of human understanding of the most intense truths in life, with death as the scariest of all,” he told the Des Moines Register in an email.

His students appreciate his candidness and the chance to learn from teachers with different lived experiences.

“I like having different teachers because they have different experiences, and I think it adds to the overall class,” said Grace Heston, an 11th grader Dallas Center-Grimes High School. “When you’re learning about Spanish, you’re not just learning about a language, you’re learning about the culture associated with it.”

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com.

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Iowa

Iowa State Football Star Lands With Bengals in 2026 NFL Mock Draft

Published

2 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Iowa State Football Star Lands With Bengals in 2026 NFL Mock Draft

The Iowa State Football program has been hard at work during spring practices with a new regime taking over following the departure of Matt Campbell. While a lot of the former head coaches’ players will be playing at other schools in 2026, one key player is hoping to hear his name called in the NFL Draft.

It was a bit of an up-and-down season for the Cyclones, who had a nice winning streak to start the year, but followed it with a four-game losing streak. Some of the inconsistencies were related to injuries with key players being out on the defensive side of the ball.

This was a unit that was expected to be a bit better than they were in 2026, but the secondary got completely decimated over the course of the year. This had a bit of a ripple effect on the rest of the team, even along their defensive front. However, one player was still able to put together a strong campaign despite all of the teammates around him being out, and now he will be hoping to be drafted into the NFL.

ESPN NFL Draft experts recently predicted what the first three rounds would look like, and for Iowa State star Domonique Orange, they had him going to the Cincinnati Bengals with the 72nd overall pick.

Orange Makes Sense for Bengals

Iowa State defensive lineman Dom Orange | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

After another year of failing to make the playoffs, Cincinnati undoubtedly has some work to do to get back to where they want to be. It wasn’t long ago that this team was in the Super Bowl, and Joe Burrow looked like he could be a main rival of Patrick Mahomes for years to come.

However, injuries to Burrow the last couple of years have resulted in some of the struggles for the team, but they have also seen their defense really go in the wrong direction. With a top quarterback and two excellent receivers making a ton of money, the Bengals have had to save in other areas, and the defensive side of the ball is one of them.

Drafting well is an easy way to save money and improve, and landing a player like Orange could be a good start for the Bengals. The talented defensive tackle was one of the best interior defensive linemen in the Big 12, and he should be able to come into the NFL and contribute right away. Due to the position not being a primary one, getting a potential contributor in the third round would be some excellent value for the Bengals.

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Iowa

Top Returning Iowa High School Boys Tennis Players

Published

14 hours ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

Top Returning Iowa High School Boys Tennis Players

The weather might still not be great, but the high school boys’ tennis season has started in Iowa.

Over the years, some high-level players have competed in Iowa, and this year is no different.

Defending Class 1A state champion Charlie LeGrand of Cedar Rapids Xavier is back, as are runners-up Easton Moon from North Polk and Dylan Schulte of Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Here is a look at some of the top players in Iowa high school boys tennis. Stats are from those on the official Bound website.

Iowa High School Boys Tennis Top Returning Players

Charlie LeGrand, Cedar Rapids Xavier, Senior

LeGrand returns off a state-title junior season that saw him finish 14-3 overall.

Easton Moon, North Polk, Senior

Moon lost just once last year, falling to Charlie LeGrand of Cedar Rapids Xavier in the 1A final. He was 29-1 overall winning nearly 300 games.

Dylan Schulte, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Sophomore

The 2A runner-up to his brother, Anthony Schulte, Dylan Schulte went a perfect 17-0 competing at No. 2 for the Hawks as a freshman.

Noah Narmi, Council Bluffs St. Albert, Senior

Narmi had a strong junior season, going 21-7 overall and competing at the state tournament in 1A.

Parker Stroh, Columbus Catholic, Junior

In 20 matches last year, Stroh lost just two, going 33-6 overall in sets played while reaching the state singles tournament.

Lucas Persson, North Scott, Senior

Persson finished with a perfect 17-0 record in the regular season, dropping just two sets in 32 played. He was a qualifier for the 2A state singles tournament.

Jonathan Pyatak, Chariton, Junior

As a sophomore, Pyatak was tough to beat, compiling a mark of 16-4 overall at No. 1.

Tyler Grote, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, Senior

Grote enters his senior season off a 15-2 campaign last spring that saw him reach the state tournament in 1A.

Leif Lundberg, Clear Lake, Senior

Like Grote, Lundberg went 15-2 competing at the No. 1 spot for the Lions, while also qualifying for state.

Garrett Bauermeister, Linn-Mar, Senior

Bauermeister went 30-6 in sets played at the top spot, finishing with a 15-2 record and a spot at the 2A state tournament.

William Feagler, Iowa City High, Sophomore

The talented second-year player had a big freshman season, going 15-1 at No. 2 and qualifying for state.

Karthik Ganesh, Pleasant Valley, Senior

Competing at the No. 2 spot in the order, Ganesh went 14-2 last season, losing just three sets.

Joseph Wright, Sergeant Bluff-Luton, Senior

Wright forms a strong 1-2 punch with Grote, as he was 14-1 with just one lost set last year at the second spot.

Aadil Patel, Johnston, Sophomore

The Dragons are always tough, and Patel looks to keep that true this year after putting together a 13-3 mark at No. 2 that saw himq qualify for state singles.

Joshua Dcruz, Pleasant Valley, Junior

Unbeaten is unbeaten, and that’s what Dcruz was at No. 3 last year, going 16-0 without losing a set.

Caleb Rasmussen, Marshalltown, Senior

Another unbeaten player at No. 3 last spring was Rasmussen, as he went 12-0 and lost just one set all year.

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Iowa man found guilty in 1989 cold case murder of his girlfriend

Published

1 day ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

Iowa man found guilty in 1989 cold case murder of his girlfriend

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — A Council Bluffs man is convicted of killing his girlfriend, nearly four decades after she disppeared.

Barbara Lenz was last seen in Woodbine on Saturday, May 6, 1989.

On Tuesday, it only took a jury less than four hours to convict Robert Davis, now 62, of second-degree murder.

Davis was arrested and charged with murder last year. Online court documents say Davis assaulted and choked Lenz several times during their two-year relationship.

A criminal complaint says Lenz told other people she was in fear of Davis and trying to leave him.

This was the first arrest and now first conviction for a case that the newly formed Iowa Cold Case Unit has helped investigate. It was an initiative pushed by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird.

“No one should get away with murder. Barbara Lenz’s family has been waiting nearly 37 years for justice,” said Attorney General Bird. “Today, after long last, they have it. Robert Davis will spend the rest of his life in prison. I am deeply grateful to Cold Case Prosecutor Scott Brown and Harrison County Attorney Sarah Delanty and her office for their hard work in securing this conviction. And thank you again to the investigators in our Iowa Cold Case Unit, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Iowa State Patrol, the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, and the Woodbine Police Department who worked hard and never gave up on Barbara’s case.”

Davis is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22, 2026.

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