SANTA ANA : Grant Will Pay for Literacy Project

The Santa Ana Unified School District has been awarded a $158,000 federal grant to fund a language program for 300 students who are not literate in English or their native language.

The program, called Project Adolescent Literacy, is for sixth-graders on up. It is intended to develop reading, writing and speaking skills in the student’s native language as well as prepare them for English instruction.

“Most of the recent arrivals come from Mexico and Central America,” said Rose Marie Fontana, director of the district’s English language and bilingual programs. “All are poor, and many are children of migrant workers. Many are entering the district’s secondary schools with little or no previous schooling.”

The project will be set up at Valley High School and McFadden and Spurgeon Intermediate schools during the 1991-92 school year and be expanded to other secondary schools the year after that. The program has received funding for three years.