Sue Martin is director of English Language Learner programs for the Lewiston City Schools, but she does much more than her title implies.

Yes, she’s expert in the different theories of English as a Second Language instruction and well-versed in the intricacies and difficulties of teaching students who aren’t literate in their own language.

She’s also a key connection between the schools and the Somali refugees who started moving to this working-class Maine town in 2001. The Somalis, a conservative Muslim group, don’t integrate much with the rest of the city’s mostly white, predominately Catholic residents. The schools are one place where the two groups intersect.

Misunderstandings are inevitable when these two very different cultures meet.

An example: Middle school students were assigned to write their autobiographies, which would be included in a book published by the school system. Many Somali middle-schoolers, who had a firmer grip on spoken English than on written English, told their stories to an interviewer.

Word got around that the girls were being interviewed about female circumcision, causing an uproar. The Somalis wondered why the school district was asking about such things. Martin didn’t know how the rumor started, but she contacted two Somali women with whom she frequently works to help quell the suspicion.

Martin was a longtime administrator in the school system before she took the job as ELL director. She knows the community intimately and she’s made it her business to become familiar with the town’s newest residents.

She understands that communication is just as important as curriculum when it comes to educating immigrant students.

Read more about Lewiston and the Somalis in my article “A Town Unified by Schools.” While you’re there, make sure to read the other articles in September’s special report on immigration and diversity.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor