CCISD: Schools on the Westside always see an increase in bilingual students

CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — The start of school is finally here and the Corpus Christi Independent School District is making sure all students are prepared for the new school year.

Every year CCISD sees an increase in bilingual students but especially on the Westside of Corpus Christi.

Just last year there was a total of 89 classrooms without teachers eligible to give instructions to bilingual students. Doctor Sandra Clement said this year that has all changed— for the better.

Currently the district has only four vacancies for bilingual teachers that serve close to little over 2,700 students.

According to Clement, the district has about 224 ESL teachers this year. That is over 100 teachers hired to be able to meet the needs of bilingual students.

"We gotta make sure we’re gonna take care of them and it is very valuable to be multilingual in today's world in order to suceed," she said.

With 53 schools in the district, Clement said they offer many resources to the students but also the parents. They have many resources like library books, computers and extracurricular activities available.

“We also do a lot of parent training we have even talked about parent university," she said. "We also let parents know when the ESC 2 education services center offers to the bilingual parents symposiums."

Clement emphasized the importance of making sure students have the right resources to succeed.

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