News that the Bowling Green International Center plans to resettle 440 refugees in October has triggered both eagerness and hesitation, with some critics claiming refugee students take up too many resources and hold other kids back. 

“That hasn’t been our experience,” said Vicki Writsel, who oversees the Bowling Green Independent School District’s English learner programs as its associate superintendent. 

“Our experience is that diversity is an asset to our school community,” she said. 

The number of refugee students attending city schools is stable at about 120, Writsel said, with 125 being the most recent count. Staff often visit refugees at their homes to help them plug into social services. It’s part of the district’s broader effort to help refugee students succeed academically, including offering weekend tutoring and extracurricular programs. The district has 4,106 students.

Chris Kantosky, chief of operations at the International Center, said about 50 or 60 percent of the 440 refugees the agency plans to resettle next fall will be of school age. The extent of its assistance to refugee students is helping them enroll in school and helping parents figure out bus schedules, he said.  

Kantosky said refugee families value education and that their children “absorb massive amounts of information.” Refugee students do well, he said, but Kantosky didn’t know how their graduation rates compare to native-born students. 

Skip Cleavinger supervises English learner programs for students at Warren County Public Schools. He described the costs of educating students learning English as “significant” and more than the cost for students growing up in Warren County with formal schooling. 

Cleavinger put the number of the refugee students in the district at around 700 out of 1,700 English language learner students. The district has 15,247 students. Refugees are distinct from conventional immigrants in that they’re fleeing some kind of persecution from the their homeland and have to deemed refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

Cleavinger said the district educates English learners through federal funding and additional $1.6 million from the district. It provides similar refugee services as the city schools. 

While it is a significant cost, Cleavinger said, it’s part of the district’s job to educate children from all backgrounds. The district also values a diverse student body, he said. 

“That is an enriching experience,” he said. “It makes us better human beings.”

Writsel agrees, comparing a community’s diversity to a healthy ecosystem. 

“I think that diversity makes for a robust culture because there’s so many things that we can learn from one another,” she said. 

English learners use the same educational material as native speakers, Writsel said. 

“Most kids when they come they have some mastery of the English language because English is so pervasive throughout the world,” she said. 

The city district employs 15 English as a second language teachers throughout the district and said the average salary for teachers is $55,000 with fringe benefits. 

Educating English learners is nothing new because of Bowling Green’s diversity, she said. Wrtisel said that gives Bowling Green’s students an advantage in today’s global marketplace. 

“I think diversity is just part of the business of public education now,” she said. 

— Follow Daily News WKU, county schools and general assignment reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @aaron_muddbgdn or visit bgdailynews.com.