FAIRMONT — The Fairmont School Board this week approved a contract for legal services to help obtain work visas for two Chileans interested in becoming English Language Learner teachers for the district.

Superintendent Joe Brown explained the need for more ELL services.

“We have a growing number of students that are either new to the country or that need ELL services,” he said. “So we came across a husband and wife team who are Chileans, currently teaching in Chile, and they are teaching both English and Spanish.

“Our ELL population continues to grow, and over the last few years we’ve sent about six different elementary teachers to get their ELL certification. Mrs. Rosen and Mr. Traetow have assured me that when those individuals at the elementary school who have their ELL certification are building their classes, they’re putting eight to nine ELL students in those classes. But we still feel like we need more, because we do need more.

“Getting this husband and wife team to come right now is hard because of the politics of immigration. However, apparently we have a special relationship with the country of Chile. It’s easier to get folks from Chile to come here if they have a work agreement, and so we actually have contracts ready to go for them.”

Another hurdle was brought up related to the riots in the Twin Cities. The board has been working with Wilson Law Group of Minneapolis to get the couple their work visas.

“The attorney called me last week and apologized for taking five days to get back to me,” he said. “Their law firm is across the street from the Third Precinct that was totally destroyed. Their law offices were looted, all of their computers were damaged, many files were taken, and it took them multiple days to regroup.

Board member Julie Laue asked about how long the visas will last.

“The J-1 work visa is a little more open than others, so there is no direct time frame,” Brown said. “With the time frame, I will bring up the question of if they will be here by September.

“I doubt it, because the process could go on for six months. But we still feel that whenever they would be available, we’ll have a place for them, because we have the need. I think, looking at our future, Fairmont is probably going to become the one area that really does this well.

“We’ve come a long way since I came,” Brown continued. “I think we just had one Spanish teacher working with a few kids. I know we had 115 ELL students last year at the elementary school and 50-some at the high school. But many of those students at the high school are new to country, had very little English and very little public education at all.”