Metro funding Spanish lessons

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Metro officials are spending nearly $12,000 to teach employees Spanish at the same time the transit agency has proposed increasing rider fares to help cover a budget deficit.

Agency employees this month began taking basic Spanish as part of a pilot project that aims to fulfill federal requirements mandating better service for customers with limited English proficiency.

"It's a business need that we have, to communicate with those that do not speak the English language," Metro spokeswoman Joanne Ferreira said.

Metro is paying a contractor $11,900 to teach 18 employees, and the money will come from the agency's $1.9 billionbudget for fiscal 2008, Mrs. Ferreira said.

The program begins as General Manager John Catoe negotiates with Metro board members on the extent of fare increases to cut a roughly $109 million budget deficit in fiscal 2009.

"The budget deficit is for next year," Mrs. Ferreira said. "This is a pilot program, and this is a need . . . We're trying to enhance our communication with the community, with the customers, and also for safety."

Mr. Catoe wants to increase bus fares by 25 cents, parking fees by 50 cents and rush-hour rail fares by 20 to 40 cents, while some board members from the District proposed a 30-cent rail-fare increase and a higher parking fare. Mr. Catoe hopes to implement his plan as early as January.

The program requires the Metro frontline employees — six bus operators, six station managers and six street supervisors — to take a 2½-hour occupational Spanish class twice a week.

The employees are paid while attending class, but the sessions are built in to their work schedules and not counted as overtime hours.

They were selected by rail-line managers and bus superintendents from Metro routes that run through areas largely populated by Spanish speakers, such as Silver Spring in Maryland, Mount Pleasant in the District and sections of Northern Virginia.

"This is the next logical step in improving service to one of the fastest-growing groups in America," Mr. Catoe said. "This is good, and it's good business."

The federal requirements date back to August 2000, when President Clinton issued an executive order mandating that agencies "implement a system by which [people with limited English proficiency] can meaningfully access those services consistent with ... the fundamental mission of the agency."

The order required agencies to adhere to compliance standards created by the Justice Department. And the agencies in turn were ordered to devise similar guidelines for programs to which they provide financial grants and assistance.

Metro receives funding from the Federal Transit Administration, and FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said groups that receive grants from his agency "have to take steps to provide meaningful access" to those who don't speak English.

"The bottom line is any agency that gets federal money from FTA is being required to communicate with their [limited English proficiency] customers," Mrs. Ferreira said.

The classes are scheduled to end this week. She said officials then will evaluate the program for the future.