Clarification

Collaborative: Diversity on loan

By Sarah Horner, Fergus Falls Daily Journal

With at least 20 percent more minority students than any of its neighboring school districts, Pelican Rapids stands alone - and proud. It offers a rich culture of diversity.
Though surrounding districts are significantly less diverse, as members of the Multi-District Cultural Collaborative, they have an opportunity to share in Pelican Rapids' cultural experience.
The collaborative is currently made up of seven districts including Barnesville, Fergus Falls, Hawley, Lake Park-Audubon, Pelican Rapids, Perham and Underwood.
All of the involved districts, with the exception of Pelican Rapids, have a minority enrollment of roughly 5 percent or less.
The purpose of the collaborative is to increase cultural awareness by crossing district lines and working together in hopes of learning from each other, according to Multi-District Cultural Collaborative Coordinator Nadine Brown.
"It gives students in other districts a real-world opportunity," Brown said.
She explained students attending school in Pelican Rapids work side-by-side with people of different cultures every day. English, Kurdish, Vietnamese, Somalian, Spanish and several other languages fill the hallways of the elementary and high school every day.
"They are in a real-world environment because they understand that the real world is not just one color," Brown said.
As members of the collaborative, students in districts with far less diversity now have an opportunity to get to know students who are different than the majority of their classmates.
Brown said even in a district as diverse as Pelican Rapids, she continues to learn more about different cultures every day.
She said she remembered an exercise she led in her speech class that required the students to shake hands with their classmates. One Somali boy would not participate and Brown could not figure out why. Finally the boy explained to her that in his culture men are not allowed to touch or be touched by women outside their family. To shake his classmates' hands would have been a sin.
She also had to learn that the Hispanic culture is not as time-sensitive as ours. She said it took some Hispanic students a while before they understood that arriving late for class is not acceptable because in their culture, being right on time is not as valued as it is in the United States.
"We all learn from each other," she said.
The collaborative creates the opportunity for the inter-district learning process, Brown said.
Three specific goals were identified for members of the collaborative.
1.) Increase cultural awareness and appreciation on a district and inter-district level by enhancing inter-racial interaction and cooperative learning opportunities.
2.) Develop language learning opportunities for students, educators and the community.
3.) Offer tutoring or extra help to any student who needs it.
Brown said although each district has the flexibility to define its own needs and develop plans to meet those through the collaborative, each plan must meet at least one of the collaborative's goals.
Some ideas for implementation of the program might be shared day trips with a class from Pelican Rapids and a surrounding district, Brown said. Or a district could hire a foreign language teacher.
Another alternative would be to incorporate cultural awareness into the curriculum, Brown said. Teachers could use cultural symbols to teach math, or a music teacher could teach cultural songs.
Brown said her goal would be to facilitate four events at each school over the next year. She also said students from other districts would be extended an invitation to attend Pelican Rapids' annual International Friendship Festival.
Implementation will ultimately be up to each district.
Seventy percent of the funding for the programs would be provided by the state and 30 percent would be levied by the districts, Brown explained. Each district could levy up to $92 per student.
A portion of each district's funding would go toward financing Brown's coordinator position, she said.
She said she would oversee all of the district's efforts and coordinate the Pelican Rapids student involvement. She said she would ensure the Pelican students don't get burned out.
"Their number one job is to be in school," she said.
What Fergus schools are considering
As a member of the Multi-District Cultural Collaborative, superintendent Dr. Mark Bezek said Fergus Falls is interested in using its additional funding to hire foreign language teachers for the elementary schools.
He explained other alternatives are also being explored and discussed with the Multi-District Cultural Collaborative coordinator Nadine Brown to ensure that the final decision meets the goals laid out in the collaborative.
The district has been approved to levy about $160,000 for the program, business manager Mark Masten said. Thirty percent of that amount, or $49,800 would be paid by local taxpayers. The rest would be paid by the state.