Minnesota education commissioner visits migrant school in Olivia to hear students’ stories

OLIVIA, Minnesota

— Spending a part of the varsity 12 months in Texas and half in Minnesota has its challenges, each with totally different required courses and a few topics taught in several grades.

However college students on the Migrant Training Program at BOLD Excessive College in Olivia discover some good, too. They’ve associates in each locations, and there is much less violence in Minnesota.

College students shared their tales with Minnesota Commissioner of Training Heather Mueller when she visited this system final week.

College students in this system come from the BOLD, Buffalo Lake-Hector, Renville County West and Willmar faculty districts. This system is there to assist college students keep away from gaps of their studying as their households transfer.

About 72 college students from preschool by means of highschool attend faculty on campus, mentioned director Jane Sanchez, and one other 30 are served in different methods.

The college operates Monday by means of Friday and can finish July 20.

The scholars’ households work in agriculture. Many dwell in Texas and transfer north for work in summer season and fall. The identical households have come to the world for a few years.

Sanchez mentioned she has recognized a few of the highschool college students since they have been in kindergarten.

Mueller mentioned she needed details about how this system serves college students and households.

The scholars instructed her commencement necessities differ between the states, and academics current data otherwise.

Typically credit don’t transfer simply from one state to the opposite, they mentioned, and a few courses are taught in several grades.

For instance, Algebra I is a junior excessive class in Minnesota however a highschool class in Texas. Texas doesn’t require college students to check American civics, however Minnesota does.

Junior excessive college students instructed Mueller there’s much less violence and combating within the Minnesota colleges and communities, they usually like having a lot of associates in each locations.

One junior excessive boy mentioned summer season migrant faculty “retains my mind sharp; once I don’t research in the summertime, I neglect issues.”

On the migrant faculty, he mentioned, “folks help me.”

Senior Leo Silva smiled barely and mentioned, “It’s good,” when Mueller requested him concerning the faculty. “The academics are pleasant and everybody’s good,” he instructed her.

Mueller mentioned it’s vital that the migrant program meet each college students’ and households’ wants.

“Life takes folks throughout, and persevering with to be versatile is vital,” she mentioned. “The system shouldn’t get in the way in which of a scholar’s path to commencement.”

Officers on the Division of Training have mentioned methods of providing diverse paths to commencement, Mueller mentioned.

“We don’t have cookie-cutter college students,” she added. “I don’t need something within the Ok-12 system to inhibit you from what you need to do subsequent.”

Maria Silva mentioned her household has been working within the space for a few years. She mentioned the summer season program has been good for her kids — and now her grandchildren.

Alex Silva, 13, an eighth-grader, translated for his grandmother and in addition answered Mueller’s questions.

Maria Silva mentioned this system helped maintain her members of the family on monitor to graduate, and it gave them optimistic experiences.

“They didn’t fall behind, they usually got here to highschool as a result of they didn’t need to be within the solar,” she mentioned.

Alex mentioned he appreciates the summer season faculty. This summer season he’s receiving assist to arrange for the superior courses his faculty in Texas desires him to take after he did so effectively on his standardized assessments.

He’s been shifting forward in math and studying Shakespeare and Homer, Sanchez mentioned.

Minnesota academics take extra time to assist college students perceive what they’re studying, Alex mentioned, whereas in Texas academics have a tendency to maneuver on extra shortly.

Mueller mentioned she was glad to listen to that the scholars and households have been discovering issues they favored in Minnesota. It is vital to search out methods to ease the migrants’ transition between the varsity methods.

It is her hope that a few of the migrants could ultimately determine to place down roots in Minnesota, she added.