With growing numbers of immigrants moving into the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District, the number of students using English as a Second Language programs has almost tripled in the past decade.
Burnsville-Eagan-Savage District students this year speak 57 languages and dialects, and a little more than one out of every eight students use ESL services.
Since the 1997-98 school year, however, the district's total enrollment has declined and the district has tried to better coordinate its curriculum, rather than leave it up to each school.
On Thursday, the school board plans to consider implementing several programs developed by a committee charged with evaluating the district's ESL offerings.
The more than $100,000 in proposed changes include professional development for all classroom teachers -- not just ESL teachers.
"The more the numbers of [students learning English] increase, the more and more teachers are affected by students in their classroom," said Assistant Superintendent Sandi Novak. "The teachers have to have the skills necessary to continue to meet high expectations."
Also being recommended: special math courses that teach vocabulary and give students the foundation to meet math standards later in school.
"I look at diversity as a wonderful, positive thing for the district," Novak said, "as long as we have the resources to meet all the needs of the students."