Mayor of Plymouth Mark Senter took time out of his schedule recently to visit the English Language Literacy (ELL) program taught after-school at Plymouth High School.
ELL teacher Kendall Hoover, a teacher at Washington Discovery Academy, initiated the meeting on the basis that she thought this would be a great opportunity for some of the students to have a face-to-face encounter, so they could get to know to know the mayor personally. Hoover, is a teacher in charge of the lower level ELL students.
Deb Sherwood, Director of Plymouth Adult Education, said, “The Mayor is a strong supporter of all of the programs in Adult Education that we teach. He has been our main speaker at our annual Adult Education graduation celebrations in the past and has visited other adult education classes throughout the years.”
ELL teacher Delia Gadziola, who is in charge of the higher level ELL students said students made a list of questions they were going to ask during Senter’s visit. Students then took turns asking the mayor questions about his job and the city. He answered the questions and spoke about his daily duties, future plans for Plymouth, and he also asked students what the ELL class meant to them. Gadziola is also a Spanish teacher at Plymouth High School.
One topic that many of the ELL students were extremely interested in was city-issued identification cards for undocumented immigrants.
Mayor Senter said Plymouth has not implemented a city ID like South Bend, Goshen, and Elkhart has because of the lack of funding. However, he did say he believes doing so here in Plymouth is important. He said spreading the news about the lack of funds is important because perhaps local organizations or the Latino population would be willing to help with fundraising. He mentioned a city-issued identification card could be used for an undocumented person to get a prescription from the pharmacy for themselves and/or their children.
Currently, the ELL class is offered at Plymouth High School on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7 p.m. Throughout the course, students study civics in addition to learning English. Community members in Marshall County and surrounding counties are welcome to enroll. The main focus of the program is to increase English language skills for employment and workplace opportunities. ELL learners can also transition to prepare for the HSE: High School Equivalency Diploma. To expand their outreach, Plymouth Adult Ed programming partners with the Marshall County Public Libraries to offer an English online resource on designated computers.
This article was written by Plymouth High School Career Marketing II senior Yessica Renteria. Yessica also captured the photos linked below of the mayor’s visit.
