Voices UNHEARD
Refugee high school students, advocates failing in efforts to influence ‘newcomer program’ at APS
Leaving the sounds of bombing and an ongoing war behind, Mahdi Hossaini’s family vacated his birthplace of Ghazni, Afghanistan, about six years ago. Albuquerque’s landscape isn’t too dissimilar from Ghazni — from what Hossaini can remember.
The 15-year-old, who speaks four languages, including English, and is currently learning a fifth, knows what it means to be a refugee in the Albuquerque Public Schools system, telling the Journal he has seen firsthand refugee students being pushed to the next grade without actually having achieved a grade-level education.
But the Highland High School junior doesn’t feel like he has a voice at the table with the district.
And when he tried to offer input to APS on its pilot “newcomer program” — an extra class that caters to students who don’t speak English or Spanish, specifically languages spoken by refugees, according to APS — he didn’t feel heard. The program, which was years in the making, is slated to launch this fall at La Mesa Elementary School.
His message was what half a dozen
other speakers and a crowd of supporters were aiming to get across Monday night.
In solidarity with Monday’s call to action, Immigrant and Refugee Resource Village of Albuquerque’s Nkazi Sinandile, who left South Africa in 1981, stood outside of APS’ headquarters Tuesday morning at a daylong protest and “hunger strike,” saying she plans to be at the offices until 8 p.m.
“I’m hoping to let (APS) know we want a peaceful dialogue,” she said, adding she wants the district to listen to the families and children who would be utilizing the newcomer program.
She was joined by up to 15 others throughout the day including six APS students, who were refugees from Africa. The kids are members of the Matunda Ya Yesu African Choir and sang outside APS headquarters as part of the protest.
At the Partnership for Community Action building Monday night, New Mexico Asian Family Center, Global 505 and other immigration and refugee support organizations called for a voice in the program that would directly affect their communities. APS Board of Education members Barbara Petersen and Candelaria “Candy” Patterson were also in attendance.
The program is open to all students to apply, but it is geared toward students who don’t speak English or Spanish, aiming to build a linguistic foundation and “help establish a formal education culture,” explained Kris Meurer, executive director for APS’ Student Family Community Support Division.
In its pilot stages, the newcomer initiative was modeled after a Denver program and a U.S. Department of Education guide for refugee students, Meurer said, highlighting research, site visits to Denver and extensive meetings that went into the program.
But Tammy Wilkerson-Hill-Fisher, with Immigrant and Refugee Resource Village of Albuquerque, said her organization has had meetings with APS, too, giving insight on what immigrant and refugee students needed — such as more accessible translators in the schools, transportation or resources for high school students — but she said her input wasn’t implemented. Instead, she said the district moved forward with a kindergarten through sixth-grade program, saying APS gave the community what they thought they needed instead of executing stakeholder’s thoughts.
Sinandile emphasized high school students need to be the focus because their time in APS is dwindling. She added that their access to free education is about to expire as graduation approaches and they will soon enter the workforce. And she noted learning English is more of a challenge for that age group than it is for young children.
Meurer told the Journal that Van Buren Middle School is also participating in the program on a smaller scale and the goal is to get the program into other middle schools and high schools as soon as possible, adding it’s still in the early stages and can be tweaked. She also noted the program is voluntary.