School to be Seattle's 2nd international elementary

Usually, fewer than a dozen parents stop by Beacon Hill Elementary School's table at the Seattle district's annual kindergarten fair. Most of them are from the neighborhood.

Last weekend, at this year's event, parents from across Seattle overwhelmed the table, wanting to know how they could get their children into the 380-student neighborhood school atop Beacon Bluff. Beacon's parent volunteers ran out of some of their literature.

The South End school's sudden jolt of popularity came as word spread that in the fall it will become Seattle's second international elementary school, offering language-immersion programs like those at the North End's John Stanford International School, the most popular elementary school in the district.

Seattle Public Schools' official announcement today will almost certainly vault Beacon Hill, a cozy neighborhood elementary, to the ranks of the district's most desirable schools.

International schools offer curriculum that has a global perspective, but the main draw is that most students graduate fluent, or nearly fluent, in a second language. Students at John Stanford learn half the day in English, and half the day in either Spanish or Japanese. Beacon Hill will offer Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Immersion teachers use gestures, facial expressions — anything but English — to teach kids math, reading and writing, social studies and science. By necessity, kids pick up the new language quickly.

Many students at Beacon Hill are native Spanish speakers. The immersion program will level the playing field for them as they learn English as native English speakers learn Spanish. Like John Stanford, the school will have an English-immersion program for new immigrants learning English.

A federal grant already funds a half-hour of Mandarin weekly for kindergarten, first- and second-grade students at Beacon Hill.

An experiment

John Stanford International School was something of an experiment when it opened in the former Latona Elementary building as a tribute to the late district superintendent. There were 200 kids on the waiting list in 2000, its first year. Its waiting list is the longest of any elementary school in the district; last fall, the school turned away about 100 students. Students from the immediate neighborhood get preference, so the program hasn't been available to kids in the South End.

In 2001, the district scrapped plans to open international programs at two more elementary schools because of lack of funding. Hamilton Middle School later became an international school, available for John Stanford students moving into sixth grade.

Karen Kodama, who stepped down as John Stanford's principal at the end of last school year to become the district's international education administrator, approached Beacon Hill with the language-immersion idea. Now, the district envisions a K-12 international track in South, West and North Seattle, with two international elementary schools, an international middle school and an international high school in each.

The district has set aside $250,000 for next year to expand international programs, but it also will need to apply for grants and seek private donations, said Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson.

"The ultimate vision from my standpoint is that all of our students really should graduate bilingual so that they can compete globally," she said.

New interest

At a Beacon Hill kindergarten tour last week, Erik Gibson-Snyder's face lit up when he learned his neighborhood school was offering an immersion program. His family loves Beacon Hill because of the diversity, but he and his wife discussed moving to the less-diverse North End to increase their shot at getting 4-year-old Grace into Stanford.

He'd heard mixed reviews about Beacon Hill Elementary, but he was impressed by the openness, the principal, the general philosophy of the school. And now, with the opportunity for immersion language?

"I can't wait to go home and tell my wife," he said.

Beacon Hill Elementary had a short waiting list last year, but most years the school barely fills up. There's very little turnover among students. The principal has been there six years. Parents of students there rave about the school's welcoming environment. Some of them worry the international program will change it.

"We were a little worried, now that it's becoming international, that some parents from outside the cluster area will try to get in, and we were trying to protect that from happening," said Ortencia Santana, whose 8-year-old son attends Beacon Hill.

At John Stanford, the successful program eventually won the attention of the whole city.

Even more significantly, it won back its own neighbors, who by and large did not attend the school before it became international.

On Beacon Hill, neighborhood parents are the first to take a second look at the school down the street. John Johnson planned to enroll his son Ford in Catholic kindergarten, but the Mandarin immersion program changed his plans.

"I might actually send my kid to public school," he said. "It never even crossed my mind."

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com