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Families and friends watch Heritage Elementary and Valor Middle School students perform poems, songs, and stories during their annual Russian Festival at
Heritage Elementary School on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. COURTESY OF RICK VASQUEZ, WOODBURN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Woodburn Russian classes see dips in enrollment
Natalie Pate
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Woodburn School District is home to one of the na-
tion’s only public K-12 Russian language programs.
But enrollment fell this year after schools switched
to remote learning and two new private schools came
to town, leaving some to fear the program may be at
risk.
District leaders reassigned two Russian-language
teachers at the start of the school year. In December,
they considered combining some of the elementary
Russian classes and transferring three more of the
program’s 12 teachers to other subjects, at least until
numbers increased.
Dozens of teachers and parents opposed the idea,
collecting more than 130 signatures on a petition, testi-
fying at a school board meeting and walking out of a
professional development training.
They argued smaller classes are more beneficial for
students learning such a difficult language — noting
Russian has a rating of four on a five-point scale in
terms of complexity and time needed to achieve ad-
vanced levels of proficiency.
Additionally, they said, Russian teachers were al-
ready working overtime to ensure there was a high
standard of curriculum available for distance learning.
To change the classes, staffing or overall program, they
said, would be detrimental to the community.
District officials said they take great pride in their
multicultural, multilingual identity, and decided not to
merge the classes or move any more staff.
However, some argue the district needs to do more
to rebuild and grow the program, assuring its survival.
Oregon’s Russian connections
Russian is among the top five most common lan-
guages spoken by Oregonians, according to data from
the U.S. Census Bureau.
Woodburn, in particular, is home to a large commu-
nity of Russian-speaking residents, including Russian
Orthodox Old Believers, who settled in the area after
escaping religious persecution in the Soviet Union in
the 1950s.
Other religious sects and immigrants from Slavic
nations live in Woodburn as well.
There are only a handful of comparable Russian im-
mersion programs across the United States, including
in Alaska, Ohio, Colorado, Maryland and Portland
Public Schools.
There are tens of thousands of Russian-speaking
residents in the Portland area. However, Kelly Elemen-
tary School, as reported by the Portland Tribune, lost
68% of its Russian immersion program in one year due
to gentrification and the subsequent relocation of a
prominent church.
Woodburn’s program declines
Like others, Woodburn provides Russian language
classes in grades K-12.
But it is the only district in Oregon to offer Russian
as part of the high school International Baccalaureate
diploma, a program often associated with advanced
placement and college-bound students that focuses
on critical thinking and is used in 150 countries around
the world.
Mavjuda Rabimov, a third-grade teacher with more
than 21 years of experience in the district, helped
Woodburn develop the curricula it uses today.
She and other educators dedicated years to stock-
ing classroom shelves with translated and culturally
relevant books, attending conferences and sympo-
siums, and working with other institutions to improve
their work.
Rabimov spoke proudly of her own daughter being
one of the first students in the district to earn the IB
diploma with the Russian track.
But with remote learning and two new, private Old
Believer schools opening in the area, enrollment has
declined in recent months.
About 5,600 students are enrolled in Woodburn
schools. This year, the district is down by 282 students
overall.
While the Russian immersion students only made
up about 5% of the district’s total population, nearly
33% of the students who left the district this year were
in the program.
This dropped the Russian program enrollment from
305 students to 214.
Educators said many Russian-speaking families
decided not to participate remotely this year because
of cultural norms. These included heightened con-
cerns about too much screen time and unsupervised
internet access.
Rabimov acknowledged the drop in enrollment but
argued it wasn’t enough to merit the district’s pro-
posed changes.
“The changes felt rushed, unbalanced and have
been done with zero consultations with us,” she said.
Rabimov said she believes part of the problem
stems from the new administration. In July, Oscar Mo-
reno Gilson became Woodburn’s new superintendent,
following the retirement of Chuck Ransom.
“Any new person who joins the administration
should first understand legacy programs like ours,”
Rabimov said, adding they should learn the history of
the program, visit classes and find out more about
each teacher.
“Without that knowledge,” she said, “no one has the
right to make changes.”
Proposed merger, transfers
With some rosters dropping to ten students per
class, district leadership suggested a staffing change
this fall. Up to five of the district’s 12 Russian language
teachers would be assigned other classes and the stu-
dents would be merged into larger groups.
Ricardo Vasquez, communications and community
outreach coordinator for the district, said proposed
changes did not stem from budget constraints. He also
clarified no staff members were being laid off and no
money was being taken away from other programs.
Vasquez said the district remained optimistic that
late enrollees would increase, but when that didn’t
happen, they created the new plan.
By combining six classes into three — something he
described as a common practice in education — they
would still be able to keep each class between 18-21
students.
“These changes allow us to readjust the organiza-
tional structure as enrollment fluctuates in order to
maintain the program,” Vasquez said.
He said Gilson is a strong advocate for dual-lan-
guage programs and has no intention of cutting them.
Cultural importance
Natalya Feoktistov grew up in Woodburn and is
now a parent and substitute teacher. She also serves
on the district’s Heritage Parent Committee.
She said these programs are vital for the children
because they allow them to connect with their cultural
identity.
“We currently see a trend in which a generation of
immigrant grandparents speak only Russian, and sec-
ond-generation immigrants have lost the Russian lan-
guage in the process of assimilating to life in America,”
Feoktistov said.
“If a child isn’t able to preserve their Russian lan-
guage, they don’t just lose the ability to speak a second
language,” she said, “they also lose the ability to com-
municate with close family members.”
Every year, Heritage Elementary School’s language
program puts together a Russian festival in which stu-
dents perform traditional songs, stories and poems,
Feoktistov said. Students also exhibit folk art and
crafts and study the history of traditional Russian
clothing.
“Russian students are a minority in our school dis-
trict, so having a place for them to connect to their cul-
ture is critical,” she said. “All of this is in addition to the
numerous benefits that come with children growing
up bilingual.”
Graduating with IB Russian and a seal of biliteracy
gives students the opportunity to find jobs that put
their language skills to use, she added.
Woodburn regularly needs Russian-speaking work-
ers in health clinics, offices and stores, not to mention
federal positions.
Feoktistov said Woodburn’s Russian heritage is also
part of the community fabric outside of schools.
“I think of Woodburn as a quilt — made up of lots of
different, unique cultures,” she said. “That is what
really makes Woodburn stand out as a city.”
Feoktistov said she was relieved the district chose
not to move forward with the proposed staffing
changes.
“The stress and impact would have been traumat-
ic,” she said.
New ideas to sustain the programs
Vasquez said the district is continually looking for
ways to improve and grow its program.
This includes providing educational assistants,
supplies, curriculum and the funding of a Russian lan-
guage program coordinator, who assists in aligning
K-12 programs and serves as a mentor for the Russian
language teachers.
“Our district’s mission and vision are grounded in
the belief that multilingual, multicultural education is
the vehicle that will create access and equity for our
students,” Vasquez said.
Rabimov said teachers like her are team players and
will do everything they can to regain students and ex-
pand the program, which would likely mean larger ros-
ters.
But she argues there are several ways the district
could improve enrollment without moving teachers
and merging classes.
The district could better promote the programs on
social media, at local churches, stores and offices, and
via various news outlets, Rabimov said.
Translating more district paperwork into Russian
and electing a Russian representative to the school
board are among her other ideas.
Feoktistov said the district can do more to connect
with Russian families, starting earlier in the year.
She argued this would give them more accurate pro-
jections for enrollment moving forward and provide an
opportunity to engage with them about other con-
cerns.
“If the district and parents work together,” she said,
“I think we can bring about a lot of positive change.”
The Heritage Parent Committee is holding a meet-
ing for district parents to talk about the program’s fu-
ture via Zoom at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11. Email heri-
tageparentcommittee@outlook.com for more infor-
mation.
For more information from Woodburn School Dis-
trict, go to www.woodburnsd.org or email Chrissy
Chapman, director of “Teaching, Learning, and As-
sessment,” at cchapman@woodburnsd.org.
Natalie Pate is the education reporter for the
Statesman Journal. She can be reached at
npate@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6745, Twit-
ter
@NataliePateGwin
or
Facebook
at
www.Facebook.com/natalie patejournalist.
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