QuickTake:
The district announced its plan to cut the program on Tuesday, less than a week before the board’s expected vote to adopt the budget. Students and parents were disappointed and frustrated to hear the news, saying the district is “going backwards.”
Gladis Lopez Rivera, 17, has spoken Spanish her whole life.
She learned English in elementary school, leaving her Spanish at home. She felt it slowly slipping away until seventh grade, when she started Spanish immersion classes at Springfield’s Hamlin Middle School. She began learning to read and write in Spanish, strengthening her language skills and confidence in her native language.
Lopez Rivera, now a junior at Springfield High School, received news last week that Springfield Public Schools was eliminating Spanish immersion classes at the middle and high school level due to budget cuts. Acting Superintendent Jodi O’Mara sent an email to families May 19 announcing the news, citing “participation trends in the secondary dual immersion program, combined with significant districtwide financial challenges.”
“Hearing that it’s going away was pretty disappointing because it has been such an impactful program,” Lopez Rivera said.
The district will keep the elementary dual immersion program at Guy Lee Elementary, according to the email. Middle schoolers will take a Spanish cultural heritage course taught in Spanish rather than a full-immersion experience. High school students can take regular Spanish classes or college-level Spanish courses through Lane Community College or University of Oregon with “tuition support” from the district. O’Mara said students will still have a pathway to earning the Oregon Seal of Biliteracy, but did not elaborate on the support the district would offer to achieve this.
Springfield schools communications director Brian Richardson did not respond to Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s questions about the immersion program changes.
“Springfield Public Schools remains committed to supporting multilingual students, bilingual learning opportunities, and culturally responsive education and will evaluate the impact of the secondary restructure at the end of the 2026-27 school year,” O’Mara wrote in the email.
Janeece Cornejo Rosales, the mother of a junior, was surprised to receive the email.
“I was like, why are they going backwards when there’s so much of a need for Spanish?” she said.
Twelve years ago, Cornejo Rosales put her then-kindergarten son, John Douglas Cornejo Rosales Murray, in the first class of Springfield’s Spanish immersion program after hearing about the program from friends.
“I thought it was so progressive of the Springfield school district to try and do this,” she said.
Murray’s father is from El Salvador and Cornejo Rosales thought the immersion would be beneficial for her son. She’s seen the program grow up with Murray and has been a part of each step, volunteering in the classroom when Murray was young and joining the planning committee when the inaugural class reached middle school.
In kindergarten, Murray’s school day was predominantly in Spanish, with 30 minutes of English instruction. In first through fifth grades, Murray’s school days were split half-and- half between the languages. In middle and high school, Murray has taken two or three Spanish immersion classes, depending on the year.
Murray said being in the program has helped him get to know students at his school who are still learning English. This year, there was a new student in the program who spoke predominantly Spanish, and Murray was happy to discover he could get to know the classmate.
“Through the program, I’m constantly talking to them completely in Spanish and being able to keep up,” he said.
Murray earned the Oregon State Seal of Biliteracy last year after passing the test recognizing language proficiency in two or more languages. Because of the level of Spanish he has achieved from the immersion program, Murray can’t imagine switching to regular Spanish, or even college Spanish. He said he would consider taking a college Spanish class only if it involved reading and writing in Spanish, not just a language course focused on grammar and vocabulary.
Lopez Rivera and Murray also bonded with first-year teacher Saray Lopez Meraz, who taught the high school dual immersion program this year. Lopez Rivera, who is Mexican, said having a teacher who looked like her was powerful. In the Springfield School District, 25% of students identify as Hispanic or Latino, while 4% of teachers identify the same.
“If they cut her, I feel like I will lose somebody in school that I trust and I can go talk about anything,” Lopez Rivera said. “She’s a great representation for Mexican students. I feel like there’s not really much representation in the school district, and she’s someone who I’ve been able to connect with on that level.”
The Springfield Board of Education is expected to vote on the budget, which includes the dual immersion program changes, Monday, June 8. The budget hearing starts at 6:45 p.m. in the district administration building boardroom, located on the second floor of the district office.
