Cyndi Loza

Southwest parents protested Jessie Beck Elementary School’s dual-language immersion program Friday, saying the program is partly to blame for some of the school’s overcrowding.

“I think they initially should have realized that they did not have the space for a program like this,” said Crystal Coakley, 40, of Reno. “It seems like no one wants to admit this has created the situation that we’re in.”

A petition with about 40 signatures was sent to Superintendent Paul Dugan addressing the schools overcrowding and dual-teaching classes. Coakley said she did not sign the petition because she did not agree with all it completely.

“My guess is that parents are concerned with the fact that they had to go to team teaching classrooms, which pretty much is what many of our schools have to do,” Dugan said. “That’s just the reality of dealing with our student population.”

Beck Principal Kristen Brown said there is misinformation that has been circulated about the immersion program, which provides instruction in Spanish and English to a class of Beck kindergartners.

She plans to address inaccuracies about the program in a letter to parents on Monday and an informal meeting scheduled tentatively for next week.

“We absolutely have a process to deal with parent concerns and the first step isn’t a petition, it’s to sit down with the principal and the senior director at the school and get the facts,” Dugan said.

Dugan said there is only one student that is not zoned at the school attending Beck for the dual-language program.

Beck is also under populated with enrollment of 522 and a student capacity of 590.