Parents push back as Springfield cuts dual language immersion program

Springfield parents, students and former teachers confronted district leaders Monday night over a plan that would keep dual language immersion only at Guy Lee Elementary School, ending the middle school and high school pathway many families expected. The change comes as Springfield Public Schools works through a $7.9 million deficit and a budget approved June 8 by a 3-2 vote, deepening fears that the district is pulling back from bilingual education rather than preserving it.

The district says the restructure will leave Guy Lee as the only dual immersion site. Middle school students would move into a Spanish cultural heritage course taught in Spanish, while high school students would be steered to regular Spanish classes or college-level Spanish through Lane Community College or the University of Oregon, with district tuition support. Springfield says students would still have a path to the Oregon Seal of Biliteracy and that it will evaluate the impact of the secondary changes at the end of the 2026-27 school year.

For many families, that did not sound like continuity. Parents and students said they enrolled in Springfield specifically because they were promised a dual immersion track through 12th grade, and several described the shift as the district going “backwards.” The concern is especially sharp in a district with just shy of 9,000 students, where about one in four students is Latino, according to Oregon Department of Education data cited locally. For those families, the loss of a Spanish-language pathway after elementary school means fewer options in the very years when students are preparing for high school, college and credentials such as biliteracy recognition.

Acting Superintendent Jodi O’Mara told families in a May 19 email that the move was driven by participation trends in the secondary dual immersion program and broader district financial challenges. The district’s own materials describe dual immersion as a program centered on bilingualism, biliteracy and multiculturalism, and a district post said Guy Lee’s elementary enrollment reached a record 27 new students for 2025-26, with an 11-student waiting list, up 50% from 2018.

The budget debate also exposed resentment over leadership spending. Board members Nicole De Graff, Bob Brew and Ken Kohl voted to approve the budget, while Amber Langworthy and Jonathan Light voted no. Langworthy questioned whether staff and parents had been heard enough and criticized the cost of new assistant superintendent Brian Megert’s position, which she said would be about $300,000 with benefits. The district says more than 30 jobs will be eliminated next school year, making the dual immersion cuts part of a much larger retrenchment that is still drawing resistance.