Gateway Elementary Launching Pilot Program in American Immigrant Education
Travis Phelps
Earlier this year the Woodland Park community was caught off guard when the school district announced the closure of its Gateway Elementary school that has operated for over four decades.
But then a group of community leaders, in a separate announcement, unveiled plans for the former Gateway building to become a new contract school.
At first, school district officials said that Gateway would not have any classes for the ’24-’25 school year that starts next fall.
But this scenario changed when the National Educate the Immigrants Society (NEIS) recently reached out to the district for a location of their first school in the country geared toward educating the immigrant children who have recently entered the country since the borders have experienced an unprecedented invasion of arrivals, hailing from several foreign countries. This trend is a byproduct of the gang wars infiltrating parts of Central and South America.
District Superintendent: “Immigrants Are Children Too”
According to Woodland Park RE-2 School District Superintendent Kent Wit, the new school will be a great addition to the district as it follows the school board’s new plan that they have secretly come up with. “Immigrants are children too and they deserve a quality education,” the superintendent stated, in a rare press conference. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a small town district like Woodland Park to really make a difference on an international level.”
NEIS is a new organization that was started earlier this year to help appease the immigration crisis. Founder Sheila Block said she launched the nonprofit after seeing thousands of immigrant children running around amok in cities, such as Denver and Colorado Springs.
Plus, the move will mesh with federal plans to deny counties, like Teller, the right to declare themselves as non-sanctuary areas. This was part of a continuing budget resolution, approved late last month by congressional leaders (see related story).
The new school will be the first of its kind in the country and NEIS hopes to build a model that can be used in other locations across the world. Block said that the school’s main goal will be educating children who can’t speak English and come from different countries.
“Our English as a second language program will be the school’s primary focus,” Block said. “We plan to educate children from countries like China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran and have them fluent in English within the first semester.”
The school will also focus on educating the immigrants about the American way of life. Block said that she plans on giving all of the children and families the knowledge they need to get citizenship within a year of moving to Woodland Park.
After the news broke, many community leaders have applauded the district’s efforts to help with the nation’s immigration crisis. Some local developers have already planned on coming up with projects to house the projected 10,000 immigrant families relocating to Teller County.
The developers of the Woodland Station project in Downtown Woodland Park have already promised to do what they can to help. Instead of building a beer garden and culinary school as they planned, the group has decided to dedicate all of the property to house immigrants.
The development group has already submitted a proposal to the city’s planning department to build seven 10-story apartment buildings that will house hundreds of 100 square foot units for housing. “After hearing the news, we jumped on a way to build something that will really help the community and country as a whole,” said developer Kirk Wagons. “I think having thousands of immigrants move to Woodland Park will be a great thing to stimulate the local economy.”
And even though the school won’t be open until September, some immigrants, hoping for legal status, have already started coming to the town in groves. Last Tuesday, three buses filled with around 200 immigrants each arrived at the Ute Pass Cultural Center looking for food, shelter and jobs that the school district promised to all immigrant families.
Last Wednesday, the new Woodland Park Mayor Jeri Finland said that the city would be utilizing the cultural center, city hall and the police station to serve as temporary housing for all of the immigrants coming to town over the next several weeks.
The owner of the Ute Inn Ellie Murphus has promised to reopen the eatery as a nonprofit specifically to feed all of the immigrant families. Managers of casinos in Cripple Creek have promised to offer the new prospective residents’ jobs regardless of their citizenship status.
Happy April Fools Day!
