ESOL picnic brings program's learners together
By JOHN A. WINTERS
john@newnan.com
Students, parents and teachers filled the Carl Miller Newnan Utilities Park recently for their annual picnic honoring those in the English for Speakers of Other Languages program.
All most of the students are Hispanic, the ESOL program also includes South Koreans, Eastern Europeans and Mandarin Chinese, according to Rusty Knorr, director of the ESOL program. More and more Koreans are moving to the area because of the KIA plant in LaGrange.
Currently, there are 540 ESOL students in the Coweta public school system, who are helped by 15 teachers.
Knorr said it takes between five and seven years for students to become proficient in English.
“That’s our goal, to make them proficient,” he said.
The annual picnic has been held for about the past 10 years, organizers said.
