Pictured are ninth-graders Tessa Annen, Cash Rager and Vivienne Spangle; and kindergarteners Xander Butler, Emerick Sherrill, Angelica Velazquez and Amari Williams, who are all in Warsaw Community Schools’ Dual Language Immersion program. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW – The first class of students in Warsaw Community Schools’ Dual Language Immersion program is now in ninth grade, having started the program in kindergarten.

Crystal Kreider, DLI instructional coach, told the Warsaw School Board Monday, Nov. 17, that WCS is looking at a decade of DLI programming at the school corporation. With regards to ILEARN results, research shows students in the DLI program should be catching up to and starting to move ahead of peers that are not part of the DLI program.

“So, we know we are developing students academically,” as well as linguistically, Kreider said. She noted every single grade level over several years are exceeding academic and linguistic goals. Students’ progress is growing year over year.

This year is the first year the DLI program is at the high school and ninth graders in the DLI program are taking AP Spanish. The goals for the 2025-26 school year for the DLI  program includes deciding on an appropriate reading assessment for Spanish in fourth through sixth grades, implementing quarterly assessments for kindergarten through sixth grade, implementing writing standards for seventh- and eighth-grade Spanish, creating curriculum maps for seventh- through ninth-grade Spanish courses aligned with the literature course in seventh and formalizing the school corporation’s partnership with Indiana University Kokomo.

During the presentation, ninth-graders Tessa Annen, Cash Rager and Vivienne Spangle answered questions about how the program has impacted them so far and why learning a second language was important.

Spangle said she’s been able to visit other countries, and it’s been helpful for her to speak a different language while there. She wants to go into law and knowing Spanish will help her grow her clientele. Annen said the program has changed her perspective on everything and has made her more aware of different cultures around her. She wants to go into healthcare and knowing another language will enable her to help more people. Rager said the DLI program has helped him with life skills and understanding different cultures. He’s also been able to help people out who don’t speak English well or at all. He is still trying to figure out what he wants to do as a career but thought learning Spanish gives him so many fields and opportunities he could possibly excel in more.

Annen, Rager and Spangle also asked kindergarteners Xander Butler, Emerick Sherrill, Angelica Velazquez and Amari Williams questions in Spanish about things like what their favorite colors are and the name of their school. Board Vice President Tom Westerhof asked what students could expect in 10th to 12th grades. Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said the current plan is for 10th- through 12th-graders to take 3000-level courses in Spanish. Students can graduate from high school with about 18 or 20 college credits in Spanish, depending on how they score on the AP Spanish exam at the end of their ninth-grade year.

Hoffert said WCS have had several universities say they want to be involved in the program when it comes to teaching the 300-level classes. However, with possible future budget crunches at universities, getting professors “is the biggest struggle and it comes down to a financial piece on their end.” Hoffert said WCS is trying to be creative to incentive participation from universities in the DLI program.

In other business, the board approved donations and grants, including $800 from Cedar Holdings for Warsaw Community High School baseball, $5,000 from James Silveus for WCHS football, $7,500 from Surf Air Wireless for the WCHS Athletic Department general fund, $1,000 from Charities Aid Foundation America for WCHS girls’ volleyball and $500 from Work Pier & Lift LLC for WCHS boys wrestling.