When Osmaida Balbuena started kindergarten at Phoenix Elementary School, she didn’t speak any English.

Now in the fifth grade, Osmaida slides easily between Spanish and English on the playground and in the classroom with her classmates in the school’s bilingual education program.

The Phoenix-Talent School District operates one of only a few dual-language programs in the state that teach children in English and Spanish, building reading, writing and speaking skills in both languages.

"It’s a real attempt to bridge the chasm and have both groups learn a new language," Phoenix Elementary Principal Zuna Johnson said. "It’s a vision of how education could be wonderful for all kids."

About 480 of the district’s roughly 2,700 students are learning English as a second language, Director of Instructional Services Tim Mobley said. The district offers bilingual classes from kindergarten through fifth grade at Phoenix and Talent elementary schools, as well as a bilingual sixth grade at Talent Middle School.

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Phoenix Elementary, where roughly 40 percent of students come from Spanish-speaking homes, started the district’s dual-language program in the early 1990s. Talent Elementary added its program a few years later.

With fewer Hispanic students, Orchard Hill Elementary teaches all classes in English, with extra help for students still learning the language. Phoenix High School and Talent Middle School offer similar help.

A dual-language program requires teachers who are fluent in both languages and have endorsements to teach bilingual classes and classes for students learning English, Johnson said.

"Teachers have to be really highly qualified to be certified to teach in two languages," she said, noting that 15 of Phoenix Elementary’s 42 employees are bilingual.

Jason Antaya, Phoenix’s bilingual fifth-grade teacher, teaches morning "matemáticas" in Spanish. Osmaida, 10, estimates the answer to an addition problem in Spanish, while one of her fellow students slips into English to explain how she solved the same problem.

All 194 students in Phoenix Elementary’s dual-language program — 45 of whom come from English-speaking homes and the rest who speak Spanish at home — start their school day in Spanish. English-speaking students volunteer to be in the program.

Kindergartners get roughly 90 percent of their lessons in Spanish, Johnson said. The amount of English instruction increases through the years until fifth grade, when students spend about half their time in each language.

"We are adding to a language base they already have," said Lori McHenry, who has taught in the program for four years. Last year, she taught fifth grade, but this year she is teaching second grade, where more time — about 70 percent — is spent on Spanish.

"If you try to teach all in English, it denies what they already know," she said. "This takes advantage of their life experiences and adds to them and really cements ideas into their brains."

Miguel Ceron, 7, is lapping up new experiences in McHenry’s classroom. He moved to Phoenix from Mexico City in January, when he was in first grade.

He’s learning to do sums without counting on his fingers. He writes at a desk instead of sitting on the floor, like he sometimes did in Mexico. He really likes the cafeteria’s chicken nuggets, which aren’t like anything he’d ever eaten before. And he understands more English every day, even though his answers to questions in the language are still a little shy.

"We know English is important and they are learning it," Johnson said.

The school’s most recent federal progress report shows that about 56 percent of students with limited English met reading standards, as did 54 percent of those of Hispanic origin. Nearly 65 percent of those with limited English met math standards, as did 62 percent of Hispanic students.

The best test for Osmaida, however, is at the grocery store.

Her father speaks only a little English and her mother knows even less, so the 10-year-old has becomes the family’s English expert. She directs her mother around the store to the right shelves and reads labels.

"I just help," Osmaida said.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.