Newsletter in many languages

The set was quiet except for the voices of Sandy Chang and Ze Lao as they delivered the monthly newscast at John Muir Elementary School in Kingsgate.

They sat poised in front of the video camera, carefully selecting each vowel and consonant to form short sentences. They recapped a school walk-a-thon and issued a reminder about spring break, grinning. But none of the 10 students intently listening could understand what the girls were saying: They spoke entirely in Hmong.

Sixth-graders Sandy, 12, and Ze, 11, are among the 15 members of Muir's Newscasters Club, an after-school program in which bilingual students are videotaped reading the school's monthly newsletter for non-English speaking parents to watch at home.

Twice a month the children gather in the computer lab to rehearse and record the newscasts. One day the newsletter is read in Hmong, the other in Spanish — the school's two most prominent languages besides English.

"It's all about making connections between the home and the school," said Debbie Loeffler, 54, the club's staff volunteer and technology assistant at Muir.

A marked-up school bulletin serves as a script for the Hmong language broadcast by students at John Muir Elementary School in Kingsgate.

"We don't need the kids to watch it, they speak English."

For many Hmong- and Spanish-speaking parents, the tapes are often the only communication link to the school. The newsletter includes information about upcoming events, a legislative update and a PTA message.

"My parents are really proud of me," said 11-year-old Liliana Gutierrez, one of the Spanish news anchors. "My dad only speaks a teensy bit of English, and my mom doesn't speak any at all. She loves watching the tapes."

Teachers also can request cassettes for individual students who they think would benefit from the translated newsletter. A total of 20 households receive the VHS tapes each month.

Loeffler and Muir Principal Linda Hughes created the program two years ago in response to the school's growing number of bilingual students coming from non-English speaking households.

"We don't want them to come to school and think they should only speak English," Loeffler said. "They should embrace their cultures and languages."

"Our goal is to help students feel empowered and positive about speaking two languages," Hughes said. For students like Chang, the Newscasters Club is a way to get involved in the school and make friends. Her parents emigrated from Laos about 15 years ago, she said.

"Sometimes we laugh a lot because we make a lot of mistakes, but it's really fun," Chang said. "It makes me feel like I can speak Hmong whenever I want."

ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Sandy Chang, left, and Ze Loa are shown taping a school bulletin in Hmong at John Muir Elementary School in Kingsgate.

Muir has the highest percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander students — nearly 30 percent — and the second highest of Hispanic students — 16 percent — of any elementary in the Lake Washington School District. The school employs five full-time Spanish translators, including the school's secretary, and regularly hosts night English classes for parents.

Loeffler said the percentage of Spanish- and Hmong-speaking students has dramatically increased over her 12 years of teaching at the school, a trend mirrored by the surrounding area of Kingsgate, a community in unincorporated King County between Kirkland and Woodinville.

According to King County Demographer Chandler Feld, diversity in the Kingsgate area nearly doubled between 1990 and 2000. The population of Asian-Pacific Islanders went from 7.8 percent in 1990 to 11.6 percent in 2000, while the Hispanic population grew from 3 percent to 5.6 percent during the same period.

The majority of the students in the club speak only English and joined the program because they're interested in production. Loeffler assigns technical jobs to students, who rotate between sound, camera and film director.

Ten-year-old Elliott Heaton, a fourth-grader, directed Tuesday's newscast.

"I like it because I get to boss people around," he said.

The club's equipment was funded by three grants, including one from the University of Washington Women's Club and one from Honeywell International. The grants do not cover consumables, such as the blank videocassette tapes, which are funded by the school. It's only a jumping point for Loeffler, who will continue to write grants to fund a set backdrop. She expects the demand for the videos to grow as the school becomes more ethnically diverse.

"Even right now we have so many more languages that could be represented if we had the time and the money," she said. "This could be my full-time job."

Lara Bain: 206-464-2112 or lbain@seattletimes.com