GILLETTE - Refugio Loza's life is broken into two vastly different worlds. At home, he speaks Spanish to his Mexican parents. But at school, he speaks English to his American peers.

Although it can be hard to separate the two arenas, the Meadowlark Elementary School fifth-grader likes immersing himself in two different languages and two different cultures.

"When you learn two languages, it's a lot better for your mind," Loza said.

Scenarios like Loza's have become more common in Campbell County.

In the past year, the Hispanic student population has risen 22 percent while the overall student population has grown only 3 percent.

That growth has greatly enhanced the diversity within local schools, but it has also stretched local resources thin.

"We need more people who understand the needs of the children," said English as a second language teacher Margaret Nunn, who works at Meadowlark.

While the ESL population has increased by 48 students over the past year - bringing the total number to 129 - there are still only 2.2 full-time ESL teacher positions to work with those students. The ratio is actually far better than the one ESL teacher to 100 students that the state Department of Education recommends, but some teachers say it's still not ideal.

Nunn said the 45 minutes each day that she has to work with the district's 77 elementary ESL students - all of whom attend Meadowlark and most of whom are Hispanic - isn't enough.

Until about four years ago, she worked with each ESL student for 90 minutes a day, and she wishes that was still the case.

ESL teacher Shirley Jervis, who works at Campbell County High School South Campus, said she, too, has felt the strain of the population growth.

She keeps a list of all of the kids whose parents speak Spanish so that she can translate newsletters sent home.

This year, for the first time, Jervis called the Spanish-speaking parents of Twin Spruce students to encourage them to attend parent-teacher conferences, and translated for those who came. Her efforts hailed the biggest turnout yet from that group. But, because she's spread so thin, she doesn't have time to do the same thing at other district schools.

Last year, there were about a dozen kids in Jervis' secondary ESL program. This year's program has 31 students, most of them Hispanic.

Jervis can't usually give the entire class a lesson at once, because the students are at different levels of proficiency. Instead, she circulates throughout the room and works with small groups on different tasks.

She works with beginners for two hours each day. But starting this year, she only sees intermediate and advanced students every other day.

"We could definitely use more than we have," she said. "Especially when a kid comes in junior high or high school, it's a phenomenal task to try to learn English at the same time you're learning academics."

Academic language

"Does anyone know what a jester is?" Jervis asked a group of junior high boys one Thursday morning when they were reviewing concepts that had appeared in a book they were reading.

"A clown," Twin Spruce seventh-grader Israel Ugalde said with some confidence.

Very good, Jervis said. "What is a country that has a king?"

England, one student called out. He also explained that the United States has a president instead of a king.

As was the case that morning, much of Jervis' time with students is spent working on academic language they may struggle with.

When kids who speak a language other than English come into the district, they take the Wyoming English Language Learners Assessment.

Based on the test results, they are considered non-English speakers, limited English speakers or fluent English speakers. ESL works with students in both of the first two categories.

Nunn said they aren't considered fluent until they master two types of language: basic interpersonal communication and academic language.

For most students - including Ugalde, who was born in the United States but whose parents are Mexican, and Twin Spruce seventh-grader Oscar Noyola, who was born in Mexico - the academic language is what gives them trouble. Noyola can speak fluently to his peers and teachers about everyday topics. But he has trouble understanding and retaining some classroom terms.

"A couple days later, you don't remember what it was or how to say it," he said.

Twin Spruce ninth-grader Luis Herrera, who moved to Gillette from Mexico a year ago, said the thing that has proved most helpful in learning English is a routine activity Jervis gives him in which he has to translate English words to Spanish.

It helps him distinguish between words that sound similar - "peach" and "beach," "ice" and "eyes," and "where," "were" and "we're."

In addition to learning challenging vocabulary, it can also be hard for ESL students to stay apprised of what's going on in class.

"It's hard to understand my (science) teacher because he talks too long and too fast," said Twin Spruce eighth-grader Sergio Rodriguez, who was born in the United States but spent most of his early years in Mexico. He said that in Phoenix, where he lived for about a year before moving to Gillette, it was hard to find help when he was struggling with concepts in class. As a result, he rarely did his homework and often fell behind.

He said that hasn't happened in Campbell County because it's easy to get help from teachers. Still, district staff make a concerted effort to place students in classes that correspond with their age level - even if the students are not English-proficient.

"Kids teach kids a lot of language and a lot of culture," Nunn said.

Moving around

No matter how much the Hispanic student population increases from year to year, the makeup of the ESL students changes markedly during each school year.

Nunn said she estimates that between 10 percent and 15 percent of her Hispanic students leave sometime during each school year.

"First, there's the issue of immigration. Not all of them are coming here legally," Nunn said. "(Plus) it's hard for families to come here and survive here with our housing situation. And there's no transportation. Either they have a car or know someone who has a car, or they can't work."

Not surprisingly, Nunn said moving around a lot makes the already difficult task of learning another language even harder for students.

Noyola has been at six different schools since kindergarten. He hopes to remain in this district until he graduates - partly because he knows and feels comfortable with his teachers, and partly because he has built a social network.

"If we go back to another place, we'll have to make new friends and it will be hard," he said. "The kids might talk different, and you won't know what to say."

Nunn said she tries to convey how beneficial it is for students to know two languages, but most probably won't realize what a true asset it is until they are adults.

"We have great admiration for our little children," she said. "They have twice as much to learn as anybody else - they have the language and the academics."