ELIZABETH FLORES � eflores@startribune.com January 17, 2008 - Inver Grove Heights, MN - Pine Bend Elementary ESL teacher, Natasha Bade, worked with students from left, Pedro Ortiz-Palacio, Alexis Cruz-Hernandez, Mariana Chavez, and Jaqueline Ortiz-Palacio, during a special class to help the mostly Native Spanish speakers. �A mobile home park in Inver Grove Heights is starting to transform one of the district's elementary schools. At Pine Bend Elementary, seven non-native English speakers have enrolled in the last month - every single one from Skyline Village, a nearby mobile home park that is sending the school high numbers of low-income and Spanish-speaking students. In response, the school - located in a traditionally white suburb of St. Paul - is launching several new programs to serve those students, including a volunteer classroom program for kindergarteners and an afternoon tutoring program for about 50 older students that will be held four days a week at Skyline Village. We'll put changes at Pine Bend in the context of demographic shifts across the district.

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