ROCHELLE — It was history in the making as the Class of 2030 walked across the stage one by one to accept their diplomas from Central School principal Justin Adolph.
The 50 Kindergarten students are in the Dual Language program, which consists of half their day being taught in English and the other half in Spanish — without any translation.
Proud parents, grandparents, and family members filled the gym last Friday at the inaugural graduation ceremony. Adolph remarked how well the school year went.
“I’m so proud of everyone that came together to make this program happen — teachers, board of education, and families,” Adolph said. “While we felt very well prepared heading into the school year, it has gone better than anyone could’ve expected. Teachers and parents have worked together so well to understand dual language and to get our kids off to a great start in this program.”
Andrea Young is the program’s Spanish teacher and shared her thoughts on the student’s progress since the beginning of the school year.
“In the Spanish classroom it has been amazing to see how the English speaking students have progressed. They entered without any Spanish background and they couldn’t understand anything I was saying,” Young said.  “Now they understand a large majority of what I am saying. They understand directions and routines and have learned how to figure out what I am talking about by watching my body language, finding cognates, or asking a friend. They have progressed wonderfully.”
Sarah Kennay, Dual Language English Teacher, echoed Young’s sentiments.
“I am delighted with the progress our students have made this year. It has been exciting to finally experience the plans and units we’ve been working on for so long. I am so proud of this group of kids,” Kennay said. “I am constantly amazed by how easily the kids start using the languages they have been learning. There is no self-consciousness involved. They are so excited about every success and not at all worried about any setbacks. We emphasize grit at Central School — we never give up.”
Adolph said planning the program has taken about two years and credits Bilingual Coordinator Idalia Marin with assisting along with support from Todd Prusator, District Superintendent.
“The real work and magic of this has come from our teachers who’ve been on the front line of the planning and implementation of this,” Adolph said. “Now, we’re spending about a year planning the curriculum for each subsequent grade but the initial planning involved much more than just curriculum…we had so many people that we needed to communicate with in order to ensure that everyone had a common understanding of the program.”

Buddy system
Traditionally students in Rochelle are not exposed to a second language until their freshman year of high school when Spanish and French are offered. In the dual language program, instead of separating students according to their primary language they are paired together to learn from one another about their language and culture.
This, Marin said, serves as a language model for each other throughout the day.
The program has also broken the traditional language barriers when it comes to interactions and friendships.
“Even though they are divided into two groups of 25, they see themselves as one big class and have made friendships regardless of which group they are in or what their language background is,” Young said.
Kennay admits this year is unlike any other in her 14 years of teaching Kindergarten.
“I have never seen the students connect with each other across culture and language the way they have this year. They see themselves not as English speakers or Spanish speakers, but as part of a larger group of just Kindergarteners,” she said.
These students will continue with the dual language program into first grade.
Next year’s batch of 50 students have already registered and it will be the same ratio of 25 English native speaking students and 25 Spanish native speaking students.
Adolph said there has been some minor curriculum changes much like after any other typical end of year reflection.
All in all the students know what they are doing is pretty remarkable.
“We have made an extra effort to emphasize how special it is that these students are working toward bilingualism and bi-literacy,” Kennay said. “I love to see the pride they feel in themselves and the kindness and support they give to each other.”