Enrollment in ESL Program Shows Signs Of Slowing

"We haven't enrolled anywhere as many students as we had expected, so we will not need as many additional teachers," Evangelista said. "We're still going to have more money than we have this year."

As recently as the 1997-98 academic year, only 195 students were enrolled in the ESL program, according to school officials. Now there are almost 4,400 -- a jump of more than 2,000 percent. Overall enrollment in Loudoun schools rose 127 percent over the same 10-year period, from 23,782 to 54,047.

Seventy-two languages are spoken by students throughout the school system as of this year. The top five foreign languages are Spanish, Vietnamese, Urdu, Korean and Punjabi.

Evangelista, who speaks Spanish and Italian, said he could have benefited from an ESL program when he emigrated with his family from Italy in 1954.

He was 8 years old and did not speak a word of English. And a public school in Rochester, N.Y., gave him two choices: Drop back a grade or enroll in a school for students with learning disabilities. His family instead sent him to a Catholic school that allowed him to enroll in the age-appropriate grade.

Evangelista said times were tough for his family then, just as they are for many of the new immigrants in his program. His father eked out a living as a barber, he said, and he recalls a group of strangers bringing a bag of groceries to his front door during his first Christmas season in the United States.

"So in that sense I can relate to the kids in our program," Evangelista said. "I know what is going on in their households. And I know that learning English opens up varied possibilities."