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Baldwin-Whitehall staff strives to integrate 200 refugee students and make their schools 'islands of tolerance'
Wednesday, October 17, 2001 By Mary Niederberger, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
When refugee children from Bosnia started to trickle with little warning into the Baldwin-Whitehall schools in spring 1996, teachers and administrators found themselves scurrying to figure out how to best help the children learn the language and assimilate into their new schools and new lives.
Since then, through some trial and error by administrators and staff, the school district has devised a plan for serving its growing refugee population.
In fact, it has done such a good job that it was recently awarded a $100,000 Refugee Children School Impact Aid grant from the state Department of Education.
The grant comes at an opportune time for the district, which has seen its ranks of refugee students rise from 12 in the 1996-97 school year to about 200 today (out of 4,900 in the district), with more on the way. Meeting their needs has become more difficult as the group has become more diverse.
In the past two years, the district has received students from Iraq, Eritrea, Liberia, Somalia, Pakistan, Sudan and Vietnam, as well as the original influx of Bosnians. Baldwin-Whitehall has the highest percentage of refugee students of the 42 school districts in Allegheny County, said Jennifer Beagan, an English as a Second Language supervisor with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
The district has become an oasis for refugee families because Catholic Charities, the organization that brought them to the United States, found reduced-rent housing for them at the Prospect Park Apartments in Whitehall.
The grant money will be used to fine-tune what already appears to be an effective system for acclimating refugee students and their families to their new surroundings and providing them with the support they need to succeed in school.
"This school district has such a wonderful environment for these students," said Fred Baraky, a supervisor of remedial services with the AIU. "I've worked with other districts that aren't as accommodating. Overall, it eases a lot of the tensions if the kids tend to reach out a little [to the refugee students]. It's nice to have a very sensitive group of adults and kids."
Current efforts
The work currently going on in the district on behalf of the refugee students is the result of a consortium made up of district officials and community groups such as South Hills Interfaith Ministries and the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, which have worked together to meet the needs of the students and their families.
"It was some uncommon individuals getting together in the beginning and being persistent and saying we have to do some stuff," said Karen Williams, supervisor of special education who has overseen refugee programs for Baldwin-Whitehall.
That "stuff" has included everything from beefing up the district's ESL program, which was nearly nonexistent prior to the arrival of the refugees, getting school supplies for new students, arranging for translators for the registration process and creating after school homework clubs.
The district also has used a buddy system to match refugee children with classmates who can help them find their way around school, and has held sensitivity training for staff members so they can understand the effects of the refugee experience and the drastic cultural changes the children have been through.
Despite making great strides in the way refugee students are served, the school district still faces challenges. For example, it rarely gets more than two or three weeks' notice that a refugee family is moving into the district. Even with the notice, the district often doesn't find out how many children will be attending school or their ages until they show up to register.
In addition, a number of the recent refugees are children who were born in refugee camps and have never had formal schooling. Their families arrive with no school or health or immunization records. Some don't even know their children's birth dates.
Goals for the grant
Because of these obstacles, district officials are hoping to use some of the grant money to make the registration process as smooth as possible, to find ways to get more information to parents and to get more refugee parents involved in school activities.
One way they plan to do that is to develop a Web site that will provide information in various languages and will offer a "virtual tour" of the district's schools and a printable map.
The district also hopes to work through PTA groups by having their members reach out to refugee parents.
The district also would like to create a welcome kit for refugee students and their families that will include an orientation video, schedule of adult ESL classes and invitations to PTA programs.
Also, according to its grant proposal, the district plans to "develop a cadre of interpreters and translators" to inform parents and students of important information and school procedures.
Some of the grant money has been used to hire additional ESL teachers and to provide two of them to the after-school homework clubs run by SHIM at the Prospect Park Apartments, and one to the summer recreation program operated by SHIM and Whitehall Borough.
The district also hopes to provide more cultural awareness programs so that staff and students can have a better understanding of the refugees' experiences and
of the culture they left behind.
Cultural sensitivity
Some of the presentations given to teachers last year by the Pittsburgh Literacy Council, the AIU and SHIM left the staff in tears, said high school Principal Jan Garda. "They told them about these kids seeing relatives die and leaving home and never being able to come back," Garda said.
A recent training session was conducted for bus drivers and cafeteria workers by Khadra Mohammed, a counselor for Family Resources International Outreach Project. These groups of employees were targeted because "a lot of harassment happens in the cafeteria and the school bus," Mohammed said. "That's where you have the largest set of children together and the people with the least training. They don't do appropriate intervention because they are not given the authority from the school to direct the child."
Mohammed explained to the workers how refugee children, who are used to living in very close quarters, might not understand the American idea of personal space. "They may get too close to the American children, who may say, 'Get away from me,'" she said.
Also, she said, refugee children may be inclined to run for the school bus or to run to get to the front of a food or water line. "In refugee camps, there are lines for everything. They are used to running to get there before things run out," Mohammed said.
She also instructed the workers not to be afraid to reach out to the children or their parents if there is a problem.
Her message appears to be sinking in. Ana Vitas and Seila Siric, both Bosnian refugees in fifth grade at Paynter Elementary, said their bus driver gave them bags of hair ornaments in return for their help in translating for and helping with new refugee students on the bus.
The girls said they are happy to help because they remember how difficult their first days were here several years ago. "It wasn't as friendly," Ana remembered.
Seeing growth
Of the roughly 200 refugee children in the school district, about 70 have already completed the district's ESL programs and are on their own in classes, said Judy Berkowitz, who was hired to be a project coordinator for the grant.
Of the remaining 130, the largest group of refugee students, about 70, are enrolled at Paynter Elementary, where they comprise about 10 percent of the student population. (Paynter is the elementary school that serves the Prospect Park Apartments.) About 30 refugee students are enrolled at Baldwin High School and Harrison Middle School.
Berkowitz is the daughter of Holocaust survivors who fled to Israel from Czechoslovakia, so she grew up hearing stories of their refugee experience. As a child, her family emigrated from Israel to Montreal, Canada, when she was in fifth grade.
"I know what it is like to sit in a classroom where they speak a different language, where the erasers on the chalkboard are different and the desks are different," Berkowitz said. "I feel a certain protectiveness over these kids. I see their successes and their frustrations. I love seeing the growth in the children. It's wonderful."
Paynter Principal Betty Taiclet has seen that growth as well. She points to fourth-grader Ilija Pejic, who arrived at Paynter two years ago so frightened that he cried all day, said Taiclet, who was his second grade teacher.
"He learned, and now he is helping others," she said.
Going the extra mile
At Harrison Middle School and Baldwin High School, principals say they too believe things are running smoothly. "The vast majority of the students are embracing the refugee students. I think I've had isolated cases where cruel things have been said. But when we work with the children, they all seem to understand," said Harrison Principal Donna Milanovich.
At Harrison, Milanovich hopes to hold small-group discussions in which the students can talk with staff members and other students about cultural differences. High School Principal Jan Garda said the goal is to operate the high school as "an island of tolerance."
There are guards at the school, but that is more a function of the school's size -- 450-500 in each class -- than due to any ethnic problems there, Garda said. Whitehall police Chief William Schmitt said his officers have never been called to the high school for disputes between refugee and American students.
"I think things are going extremely well there," Schmitt said.
The death of an African refugee school soccer player from an undiagnosed heart ailment last summer showed how the worlds are getting along. "At the funeral home and funeral, there were hundreds of kids, those who were in class with him, on sports teams with him, the coaches and community members, neighbors in Prospect Park. The outpouring was just overwhelming," Garda said.
"A lot of kids accept them and take them around the school and introduce them to their friends. They are willing to go the extra mile for them," said Melissa Sciulli, a senior at Baldwin High School and president of the student government.
Many of the refugee students are "pretty good students academically" and "very good" athletes, she said.
Sciulli believes the refugee students aren't the only ones to benefit from the way the school district has embraced them. "I think it has improved things because it creates a diverse atmosphere. You learn from other people, and they learn from you. You learn that the world isn't exactly the way you are," Sciulli said.
Administrators agree.
"It's just made our district so much more rich," Williams said.
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