From language barriers to truancy, CASD Engagement Center concentrates support
Imagine going to a new school in Chambersburg as a kid, and in all the other anxiety you also need to test to measure your understanding in languages that you hardly know or simply don’t know.
This was once a reality for hundreds of students whose English was their second language. But the Chambersburg Regional School District’s New Chambersburg Engagement Center allows these students to screen out language proficiency and complete other school registration requirements.
Chambersburg Engagement Center, located in an office space at the F&M Trust near Memorial Square, has provided 200 household registrations for about 200 families since opening on January 6, and said Andrea Mills, director of K-12 ESL (English as a second language) during a ribbon-cutting celebration held on Thursday.
“It’s a big service that families in our area need,” she said.
Local officials, other leaders and supporters throughout the community gathered at the ribbon cut at the Chambersburg Engagement Center on Thursday, February 27, 2025.
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The center is closely related to the goals of Chris Bight’s principal, with CASD gaining the status of a “distinguishing school” by 2030. To ensure that students are learning and maintaining the necessary academic and behavioral skills to ensure multiple changes to facilities, courses and programming to ensure students are successful.
By placing the registration service all in one place, students entering CASD – especially those entering during the school year – can start a smoother start. While registration is the focus, the engagement center is also a place where the area can connect with students and families who need additional support and discuss what can be done to keep them engaged.
“For whatever reason, the most difficult part of the student who is not engaged is walking into a school you don’t want to go to,” Bill said. “So we hope this place will be an engagement center beyond (English learners) and besides signing up, you are the place where you interact with the school district, in a place close to you, but not like the school. It’s not that intimidating here, not so hospitality here, which is our hope for families and students.
Andrea Mills, director of K-12 ESL (English as a Second Language) of the Chambersburg Regional School District, spoke at a ribbon-cutting event held at the Chambersburg Engagement Center on Thursday, February 27, 2025. On the left are Sheriff Chris Bigger (left) and Assistant Kurt Widmann.
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CEC services are for English learners
According to a report in the last decade, Chambersburg Engagement Center’s priority is to support families with growing populations whose English is not their native language, and the region has grown by 150% in the region over the past decade. Mills said about half of the 200 families served so far do not speak English at all.
Mills said the engagement center staff was bilingual and at least one of the three staff interpreters during public time.
Other in-house services are targeted at English learners, but can still be provided for any family that may need them. These include a Keystone Health representative who can arrange for students to receive immunization and physical examinations at a Chambersburg-area high school clinic, including a Keystone Health representative who can help students get vaccinated and arrange their bodies, and twice a week social workers can help students facing homelessness or other challenges.
Although many non-English families speak Spanish, the region is seeing an increase in students who speak Haitian Creole. CASD interpreters don’t speak the language most people in Haiti speak, but they use a program called Languageline to help the incoming family of speech.
Learning about the upcoming furthers about Haiti’s Creole speakers coincides with visiting CASD representatives in Washington County, Maryland to see the new student welcome center for the school system, Bill said. Together, they provided inspiration for the Chambersburg Engagement Center.
Even bigger, he returned to CASD as principal in late 2023, after serving on the administrative team for eight years as of 2015, recalling a school board member suggesting he talk to ESL coach Sue Marshall who visited Washington County about King Street Church.
“When they went back to the concept of this center and what I saw Sue Marshall doing at King Street Church, I said, ‘We can do better.’” He said, “I remember Sue saying, ‘Haitian Creoles are your next family to be successful and you’d better start now because they’ll have a lot of kids in school.”
This is the room where many families will meet with representatives and connect with language, health, social and other services at the Chambersburg Engagement Center.
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CASD’s 20-month lease at home in Chambersburg Engagement Center began in October. Under the lease agreement, the owners Franklin County District Development and Chambersburg District Development rented their rent to the area for $4,300 per month.
“What you are doing now as a region is incredible,” FCADC President Mike Ross said before cutting the ribbon. “There is a vision that I think we are excited to be part of that vision right now.”
Chambersburg Engagement Center is open Monday to Friday from 8pm to 3:30pm. Welcome to take a walk. Families can also call 717-267-4766.
The entrance is located at the rear of Central Avenue.
Amber South at South can be contacted at asouth@publicopinenews.com.
This article originally appeared in public opinion in Chambersburg: Chambersburg School District celebrates new engagement center
