SALT LAKE CITY — From a refugee camp to the Granite School District, Raymond Kapongo could barely speak English when he began school in Utah.
Now 16 years old, Kapongo has spent six months at the Newcomer Academy, adapting to life in America.
At first, Kapongo seems withdrawn. But at the academy, he sits on the edge of his chair, leaning toward the dry-erase board, regularly throwing out answers to the teacher's questions.
He's comfortable and he's engaged.
Every other day, Kapongo attends the Newcomer Academy, a school that offers extra support to refugee and immigrant students throughout the Granite School District.
Last week, rumors that the program was in danger of being cut proved to be true. When Superintendent Stephen Ronnenkamp publicly released his recommendations on the district's plans to plug a $17 million budget deficit, one recommendation included axing the Newcomer Academy and its $180,000 budget.
The academy focuses on helping immigrant and refugee students at the high school level integrate into American schools. It specifically serves immigrant and refugee students transitioning into the United States, providing more one-on-one attention in building English skills and working with cultural differences to help students adapt to life in America.
The program allows for more intensified teaching opportunities, including re-teaching, as well as extra after-school tutoring.
With the program on the chopping block, students in the program will have to transition back into their home schools.
"My concern is that they won't be served well in their home schools," said Linda Barth, Newcomer Academy coordinator for the past year. "Many, many students have told us many, many times that they simply do not get the help and support from the home schools that we give here."
Before moving to the U.S., Kapongo spent nine years in a refugee camp without running water or electricity. When he began school in the United States, he had difficulty adjusting and often would get into fights.
It was the Newcomer Academy staff, he said, that helped him adjust to high school, and the academy's English class has become his favorite part about school.
"They explain to you even if you don't understand something," Kapongo said. "They just explain to you until you understand it. In home school, the teacher just only person. Even though you say, 'I didn't understand this one,' they can't stop. They just keep going."
Charlene Lui, Granite's director of educational equity, said most resources will be moved to Cottonwood High, the school with the highest population of students still enrolled in the Newcomer Academy, where they will "receive the same services in their home schools."
Students who were part of the academy will be moved into a more standard English as a second language program that includes one oral, one reading and writing and one language arts class. The staff from the academy will be allowed to stay on at different locations throughout the district, and interpreters and bilingual tutors will still be provided to students.
"The teachers at the Newcomer Academy, because they're working with the students all day long, and because many of them have done it for four years now, their understanding of the needs of the students is probably at a higher level than say a teacher at another school who may not work with the ESL students regularly," Lui said.
"Can we bring all teachers up to that same level? You bet. And those are some of the things we are going to have to look at."
Utah schools average the largest class sizes in the nation. In Granite School District, one teacher is on staff for every 28.25 students. The Newcomer Academy ratio falls below that average at 20 students per teacher.
Kapongo is one of 71 students enrolled in the Newcomer Academy, with students from countries stretching across the globe, some coming from as far away as Burundi, Vietnam and Iraq.
The academy's grades mark the difference for students between regular classes and the academy. From data compiled by the Newcomer Academy, students' current grade-point average for classes taken from the academy is 3.3, but those same students averaged a GPA of 1.9 in their home schools.
"If a teacher just gets up and lectures at a mile a minute and puts tons of notes on the board, a student who has just come from a refugee camp in Africa who can't read or write in any language, none of that information is accessible to them," Barth said.
Granite officials met Thursday with Gerald Brown, the director of Refugee Services for Utah. Brown noted that refugees have to feel safe before they're expected to integrate and that some intensive English classes are necessary for immigrating and refugee populations.
District officials still hope to maintain close to the same level of support for immigrant and refugee students by providing extra services at Cottonwood High.
"We do not use a sink-or-swim model in our school district," Lui said.
e-mail: gbarker@desnews.com