By Gabrielle Russon, Truth Staff
DUNLAP -- There's fear of getting deported. Marilyn Torres and other teachers hear it from their students.
Hispanic parents are giving away power of attorney for their children because they're frightened of Indiana's immigration laws. Torres hear this, too.
At Matt Jerlecki's car wash, Hispanic customers tell him they're ready to put Elkhart County and the state of Indiana behind them.
"The pain is here. The uncertainty is here," said Juan Vega, a pastor at Iglesia Menonita del Buen Pastor in Goshen.
The side effect to this uncertainty and pain is its impact on education locally.
Ultimately, there could be a heavy blow to school enrollment, believes Torres, a literacy facilitator at Elkhart Community Schools and co-coordinator with the Immigration Task Force.
"Right now everybody is hiring new ENL (English as a New Language) staff and new teachers, so imagine if our numbers change," Torres said. "Do we end up laying off staff?"
In the last five years, a burgeoning Hispanic population increased student numbers in the county. Because of the overall enrollment rise, two school districts -- Goshen and Concord -- are poised to start constructing new buildings by the 2008-2009 school year.
But some residents have publicly expressed concern for the schools' multimillion-dollar projects because of immigration laws' uncertain effects. Concord's new junior high should cost about $39 million, and Goshen's grade 5-6 building has a nearly $31 million price tag.
"We're spending a lot of money," said Scott Welsh, a Goshen bus driver and a regular at school board meetings. "We're going to be paying for this for a long time. I'm just concerned that if our state does something, we might have consequences that we never expected throughout all this planning.
"All of a sudden we could have open classrooms," Welsh said.
Administrators at both districts say they're closely following what's happening in Indianapolis and their student numbers.
"We're always concerned," said George Dyer, superintendent of Concord Community Schools.
For Goshen's grade 5-6 school that's scheduled to be built this fall, no construction contracts will be awarded until 2008-09 enrollment numbers are released, said Superintendent Bruce Stahly.
Then, the school board will make the decision whether to proceed with the school.
"If suddenly it was 200 or 300 students (are no longer enrolled), it would suddenly cause us to re-examine," Stahly said. "I don't think just a decline of 20 or 30 students is going to do that because that could be employment-related."
At Concord, administrators decided against adding six additional classrooms -- even though there's enough space -- when they remodel the current junior high into a grade 5-6 school.
The school may need the extra room later, but Dyer said officials wanted to move with caution because enrollment didn't show an immediate need.
If student numbers ever drop, that hurts schools financially, too.
"A lot of our school financial support is based on enrollment. That's always an issue no matter what group of kids you're talking about," Dyer said. "If numbers in our district decline, obviously dollars decline as well."
For instance, in Elkhart, when a student leaves, the district loses about $4,210 in state funding. Plus, if that student happens to be in ENL, there's an additional $250 that escapes the district, according to David McGuire, the curriculum supervisor at Elkhart schools.
The state estimates a district's future enrollment in five-year increments.
Goshen's enrollment is projected to increase by 521 students in three years. Concord and Elkhart schools show similar growing trends, according to the Indiana Department of Education's Web site.
Yet, "there's simply no way to tell until actual students are onsite," Stahly said about future enrollment.
Surmounting stress
Community leaders, like Torres and Pastor Vega, blame the Hispanic community's "growing panic" on recent state legislation.
They point to a stricter law that prohibits driver's licenses without valid Social Security numbers and an unsuccessful bill aimed at cracking down on businesses hiring illegal immigrants.
Dyer and Stahly both say Hispanic parents' fear about their future trickles down, affecting their children at school.
"One of our major concerns is what this does to our families," Stahly said. "Whether that's a parent whose afraid that they're going to be unemployed shortly, whether that's a parent that cannot get a job."
Others, like State Rep. John Ulmer, R-Goshen, see such legislation as rightfully stopping illegal immigration.
The county's boom in illegal immigration puts "a burden" on the schools, and these laws could alleviate that pressure, Ulmer said.
Besides, "Illegal is illegal," he added.
Until next year's enrollment numbers come out, politicians, community organizers and educators can only speculate about the future.
"Is there a conversation about an exodus in Goshen and Elkhart? -- Yes, people in the community are talking about it," Torres said. "Does that mean it's going to happen? I have no idea."