My name is Kelly and I have a daughter beginning her fourth grade year at the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools- The Spanish School.

I feel like my daughter has gained a lot of social skills being in a diverse environment. She is exposed to so many different cultures and races right in the heart of the city that she wouldn’t have experienced at SLPS. She loves to meet people of other ethnic backgrounds. She was able to interpret for me when we were on Cherokee street.

It’s so great that she has been learning another language at a young age. She’s already able to read and write in Spanish as well. I know families at the Grand Center Arts charter school and they have great diversity there as well. The schools are so good that people from the county even come to go to city to go to charter schools.

I went to school through the desegregation program. It was a great program and gave me a better education than I would have received in the city so I am grateful to have a high quality option in my neighborhood and in an urban community. I love that my daughter can go to school in the city but still experience something outside the box in St. Louis. Being a disabled parent it’s great that my child is close by so I can volunteer and drop in for celebrations. When you walk in to the building we all know each other. Parents help other parents so there is a strong sense of community at the Spanish School.

One parent started up a community project to gather donations for the winter for Flint Michigan. Many parents brought donations to the school and the school helped with the project. That’s the kind of community we have there.

I want people to understand that charters already get less money than SLPS and parents at the school volunteer a lot and organize fundraisers like the salsa party. They aren’t getting very much money like SLPS is saying. The music program was cut to focus on technology. Even with budget cuts they still find ways to make sure they educate the children. They work with other community organization like Boys and Girls Club to help with afterschool programs.

Her class was picked to go to a culture awareness day in Forest Park. The Spanish school sang and the Chinese school performed a dance. They’ve been in the Cinco de Mayo parade dressed up in traditional Mexican costume. She wouldn’t get these cultural experiences in another school.

In addition to the cultural experiences they have strong academics. My daughter’s favorite subject is math. They really work a lot on math and she is already learning long division in third grade.

I can’t say enough about how great The Spanish School has been for our family and I don’t know what we’d do if charters weren’t an option. Please drop the suit SLPS!