News

Who We Are

The English Learners (EL) department at the high school consists of four staff members: Kim Severson, Jacey Wozney, Fabiola Rubio Salazar and Liseth Mendoza.  This is Kim Severson’s fourth year as an EL and social studies teacher at Arcadia High School.  Previously, she taught 5th-8th grade EL in Arcadia for 5.5 years, 4th-8th grade EL in Stayton, Oregon for 3 years and spent 2.5 years in Namibia, Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  This is Jacey Wozney’s third year as an EL teacher at Arcadia High School.  Before that, she was an EL paraprofessional at Arcadia Middle School for two years after studying at Winona State and the University of Granada’s Modern Languages Center.  Fabiola Rubio Salazar is a bilingual EL paraprofessional.  Before moving to the US, Fabiola was an industrial engineer in Mexico for 11 years and worked in the industry for 7 years.  Liseth Mendoza is also a bilingual EL paraprofessional.  She is a graduate of Arcadia High School and previously worked at Arcadia Credit Union.  

What We Do

The English Learners department assists students in a number of ways.  First, we provide new-to-country students with specialized English classes to help them learn survival and academic English.  EL staff members also support students learning English throughout the day by providing translation and interpretation services in other classes.  We try to make learning English both fun and applicable.  For example, we exchange pen pal letters with students from Cotter that are learning Spanish, and then we have an in-person language exchange in the springtime.  Our goal is to help students and their families navigate the U.S. school system while celebrating the rich cultural and linguistic diversity that our multilingual students bring to the classroom and our community.

Who Our Students Are

Our students come to Arcadia from a variety of places - currently, we have students from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico.  Our students speak a variety of languages, including Spanish, Mixteco, Mam and other indigenous languages.  They arrive with a variety of educational backgrounds; some finished high school in their home country while others were unable to pay the school fees beyond sixth grade.  Regardless of their background, each student arrives with their own story and a strong desire to learn and be successful in their life in the US, and we are honored to be part of their journey.