Recently dedicated Ruth Bader Ginsburg Elementary School in Hazel Dell offers fully dual-language learning

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Elementary School marks Vancouver Public Schools’ first fully dual-language school – one of the few in Washington.

A fully dual-language school teaches a regular school curriculum in two languages for students to become bilingual. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Elementary School, which celebrated with a dedication ceremony last month, teaches in Spanish and English.

“It’s just so powerful to see children feel validated for their language,” said Hilda De La Garza, a dual-language teacher at the school.

She said one of the best parts of being a dual-language teacher is seeing the way kids communicate with each other, their parents and grandparents without fear of being different.

De La Garza said that in addition to improving problem-solving skills and creativity, other benefits outside the classroom include interpreting for family members.

Transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students spend 90 percent of their day learning in Spanish and 10 percent in English. (Transitional kindergarten is similar to preschool and prepares 4- and 5-year-olds for kindergarten and beyond.) First-graders are taught 80 percent in Spanish and 20 percent in English, and second-graders are at a 70/30 percentage.

“They’re doing a lot of work, translating, transferring in the brain,” De La Garza said. “They have to learn to adapt as well. So it’s more work for them. They have to look at gestures and body language and everything else.”

The school at 8408 N.E. 25th Ave., partially opened in fall 2023 with six classes, including one transitional kindergarten, three kindergarten and two first-grade classes.

School leaders asked parents what they wish for their children and posted the comments on a hallway bulletin board. Some parents said they wished their children could speak to their grandparents in their native language, said Sarah Flynn, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s principal.

This school year, attendance has increased and 10 classes are offered: two transitional kindergarten, three kindergarten, three first grade and two second grade.

Flynn said administrators plan to add the rest of the grades (third, fourth and fifth) each year as the students move up to those levels.

Flynn and De La Garza taught together almost 20 years ago at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School when Vancouver Public Schools first offered a dual-language (Spanish and English) program.

The district also offers dual-language Spanish programs at Harney, Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt elementary schools, and a Mandarin language immersion program at Franklin Elementary. But an English-only track is also available at those schools. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the first school where all students are taught in Spanish and English.

The Vancouver school board unanimously voted in 2021 to name its newest elementary school after late Supreme Court justice and women’s rights advocate Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The community provided feedback about what types of schools were needed, and as a result, the fully dual-language school evolved with funds from a 2017 voter-approved capital bond.

The school honors Ginsburg beyond just the name. On the late Supreme Court justice’s birthday last year, the school celebrated with a cake and an assembly where first-graders presented facts about her to the rest of the school.

“Every year, we’ll be doing something like that, but something different, to get kids presenting and talking in Spanish showing what we do here at Ruth Bader,” De La Garza said.

This year, a large colorful portrait painting of Ginsburg sits in a hallway. Staff members and students celebrated the Day of the Dead by adding photos to the Ginsburg shrine of pets and loved ones who’ve died.

Day of the Dead is celebrated from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 blending Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture, according to history.com.

“Not only are they being bilingual, but they’ll also learn how to be biliterate and be bicultural, bringing the culture into the classroom,” De La Garza said.