Adriana Bello wasn’t new to the United States, but the 7-year-old was in a new home with an unfamiliar culture and a language that seemed so foreign. She was born in Garden Grove, Calif., the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She spoke only Spanish at home, in the community and at school. Her parents moved to Decatur in 1995, pursuing work in construction. Today her father and one of her brothers own a roofing business. But in 1995, Adriana walked into a Somerville Road Elementary School classroom where the teacher and her classmates spoke another language.

In 1992, 27 students, mostly from Mexico and speaking primarily Spanish, attended schools. The English-as-a-Second-Language program grew more than 20 percent a year. The system now has 886 ESL students, most of them Hispanic. Most students remain in the program for three to five years. There are 1,195 Hispanic students in the system. This is more than Decatur High School’s student population.Superintendent Sam Houston was assistant superintendent in the 1990s and oversaw the start of a fledgling ESL program. At first, he said, there were so few students that a part-time teacher covered several schools.

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