The four-story school takes up the entire radius of one city block. Although at one point it housed multiple trades, it now shares the building with two other schools. It houses a football field, baseball field, as well as track field. Although the surrounding community has historically been synonymous with urban blight and it houses one of America’s poorest neighborhoods, overall crime rate has been steadily decreasing. Yet, Smith however, offers a welcoming environment to its students whether from teachers and deans whom stand in the corner to welcome students or the insurmountable afterschool academic, athletic and automotive activities offered by the …show more content…
We currently have a student population of 411 (73%) of our students are of Hispanic origin; many are former English Language Learners. Currently, our ESL population consists of 95 students (23.7 %), a number that has increased significantly since 2015-16 school year and is on the rise. Most of the students are reading and writing at level 1 and low 2. The language background of most students is Spanish with an increasing Arabic, Kru and Ibo population.
The schools follows Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) and Freestandig ENL program. There is a self-contained class for students with very limited English, but the majority of ELLs receive extra support through a push-in model, meaning that an ESL teacher assists them in their regular classes. There are also bilingual classes, which are taught in both English and