SALT LAKE CITY — New enrollment data shows the number of minority students rapidly rising in Utah public schools.
According to the Utah Office of Education, overall enrollment for the 2008-09 school year grew by 2.5 percent statewide to 551,013 students — a number that matches statewide enrollment projections. Minority enrollment rose by 5.8 percent, to 113,066 students statewide.
“We’re frankly fairly excited about the opportunities that affords all kids,” said Martin Bates, assistant superintendent for the Granite School District. “We live in this world where I think a huge job skill for the foreseeable future is knowing how to work with people from different backgrounds.” Granite’s overall enrollment grew by less than 1 percent, but minority enrollment is up 7.6 percent.
Latinos are Utah’s largest minority group and make up about 14.4 percent of the state’s public school enrollment this year.
Bates said PTA groups in his district are encouraging more Latino parents to join.
Alpine School District had an increase of nearly 7.5 percent in Latino students this year. The district has a program called Latinos in Action, which trains Latino high school students to work with younger Latino students four times a week for an hour a day.
“We try to help them understand who they are, the role they play in this community and how powerful it is to be bilingual, how marketable they are if they use that tool correctly,” said Jose Enriquez, assistant principal at Mountain View High School in Orem.
“When I was an English Language Learner student, I knew it would have been great to have immediate role models,” Enriquez said.
