Denver’s McMeen Elementary School looks abroad for teachers to serve multilingual students

By Anna Alejo

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — Last school year, Denver Public Schools responded to an unprecedented enrollment of new-to-country students. CBS Colorado followed one school’s experience via its special coverage McMeen in the Middle.

That registration surge has stabilized. But the school district continues to serve many newcomer students.

McMeen Elementary has looked abroad for solutions to meet the newcomers’ needs.

David Alejandro Mejia is just a few weeks into his U.S. teaching career. In Denver on a J-1 visa from Colombia.

His application appealing to McMeen on many fronts. He teaches fifth grade mathematics, a hard to fill grade and subject.

And he’s bilingual in Spanish and English, perfect for communicating with his students.

“Most of them speak only Spanish, so to have a teacher, to have a bridge to teach them mathematics in Spanish and in English is going to be very useful for them, yes?” said Mejia.

Mejia says the school community has been welcoming but, “It has been difficult because my listening sometimes is complicated to catch the speeches of people. You have to learn the accents from the different countries Latino, African, Asian and American people too.”

McMeen serves students from more than 25 countries. Mejia has students who’ve endured significant disruption in their schooling during their journeys to this country, and several in his fifth grade classroom are just beginning to learn the basics.

“Some of them can’t write, some of them can’t read so as a mathematics teacher I also have to teach them how to write and read,” said Mejia.

Mejia is one of five teachers at McMeen new to the United States this school year. Recruiting teachers from Latin America is one of the ways this dual language school is adapting to meet the needs of its newcomers.

“We have great talent here in the state of Colorado, great resources in terms of teacher selection, the need was just higher, has been higher these last couple of years,” said McMeen Principal Andria Hinman.

And as Mejia adapts to life in a new country, he hopes his new-to-country students feel confident in their own potential. He says each brings a unique strength.

“For mathematics, for talking, for speech, for handcraft, values, they have different superpowers I always tell them,” he said.

Mr. Mejia is hopeful he can move all his students closer to skills proficiency by the end of the school year.

“It is hard for them but I have also noticed they are willing to learn,” added Mejia.

Mr. Mejia is part of Denver Public Schools new International Educator Institute, which provides support to educators newly arrived from outside the country.

DPS has seen a nearly 50% increase in its H1B and J1 visa sponsorships.

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