Sunnyvale school earns county award for bilingual immersion program

The Sunnyvale School District earned accolades recently for its dual-immersion program in Spanish and English. The Juntos program at San Miguel Elementary School received a Hoffman Award from the Santa Clara County Board of Education in recognition of its impact on student success.

Begun in 1984, the awards were initiated by the Santa Clara County School Boards Association in honor of former county schools superintendent Glenn W. Hoffmann.

In Juntos—Spanish for “together”— children study both Spanish and English beginning in kindergarten, learning various subjects in both languages with the goal of achieving bilingualism and biliteracy by the time they leave elementary school.

Juntos launched its inaugural class in 2015 with a group of kindergarteners, who are continuing their bilingual studies in the seventh grade at Columbia Middle School. The students are working toward a Seal of Biliteracy, which will appear on their high school diplomas in recognition of their mastery of two languages.

When Juntos students begin the program, 90 percent of their instruction is in Spanish and 10 percent in English, with the English portion increasing year to year. By fifth grade, students are spending equal time learning in both languages.

“Our students, not only are they learning content, but they’re also becoming part of a bigger familia, of a bigger community here at school,” Hector Gonzalez-Rodas, a fifth-grade teacher at San Miguel, said in a video on the district’s website. https://www.sesd.org/domain/228

The Sunnyvale School District has a history of winning Hoffman Awards. Ellis Elementary School won in 2021 for it Units of Study in Reading, Writing and Phonics program, and Bishop Elementary’s Leader in Me and Vargas Elementary’s Students Success through Science programs took home awards in 2020. San Miguel’s Community School Model was recognized in 2017, Fairwood Explorer Elementary’s Parent Participation and Cumberland Elementary’s project-based learning programs in 2016, Columbia Middle School’s FLEX program in 2014 and Cherry Chase’s Stretchers Art program in 1997.