VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach City Public School Board Member Victoria Manning is facing pushback for a post on social media about students who speak English as a second language.
It's not first the time Manning has been criticized for a Facebook post. However, the recent one came after a presentation about ESL students and the program at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
"The purpose of the ESL program is to prepare English learners to be college and career ready through integrated content-based language instruction," said Dr. Allison Bock, a program evaluation specialist.
On Tuesday, Virginia Beach City Public Schools leaders outlined a jump in students from 1,768 last school year to 2,084 this year.
"Are those [students] primarily coming from South America?," Manning asked.
"Various countries, but I can tell you we do have a large population coming from our Central American countries," Director of K-12 and Gifted Programs Dr. Nicole DeVries answered.
After the meeting, Manning took to Facebook and posted the following.
"VB schools has 300 additional ESL students in the past year. Most are from South America. Our ESL budget has increased over $1 million in 2 years. Continuing to educate South Americans is not sustainable."
Manning told 13NewsNow by text on Saturday that the division is short 100 teachers and needs eight additional ESL teachers.
She said in part, "if we don't have the staff and continue with an increasing number of students, the program will be unsustainable."
She voiced support for continuing the program and said the division has great ESL teachers.
Connor Eppley, of local organization Stand & Advocate for Equity or SAFE believes Manning's Facebook post, while not surprising, sends the wrong message.
"I think it was extremely damaging. I think it told all of our English-second language students and families that we don't want to fund your program. We don't want to help you."
Eppley worries that message may have already resonated with some, but he emphasized this message.
"They're not a burden, they're not a burden to our schools and they're not a burden to our community," he added.
In a joint statement to 13NewsNow, School Board Chair Carolyn Rye and Vice Chair Kim Melnyk that Manning does not speak on behalf of the board nor can any individual member.
They condemned her remarks on Facebook and said "we will continue to teach and embrace every child who walks through our doors."
Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence also issued 13NewsNow a statement. Part of it reads, "I believe our core work is to educate children – all children."
Spence went on to say, "teaching and caring for our students, whoever they are, is the most sustainable part of who we are."
Manning mentioned that she plans to offer a more detailed statement on Monday.
