School holds event for Latino families

The English Language Development Department (ELD), Voces Latinas and La Academia programs held a joint meeting on Thursday, December 3 for Spanish-speaking families at the school. The meeting was a combination informational presentation and a of a holiday celebration.

Roughly 30 families attended the event, held from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

Voces Latinas is a district program that informs Spanish-speaking parents about aspects of the school that affect their students.

La Academia director Jacob Larin works with sophomores, juniors and seniors “to keep kids on track with all their academics.”

The presentations, held by Larin, Voces head Perla Pasallo and ELD Department head Lydia Zele, included discussions of finals, grades and second semester schedules.

After an hour of presentations, the holiday celebration began, which Pasallo said included “presents, cena, piñatas, food” and other activities.

The ELD program at LAHS is currently being phased into the one at MVHS. However, the parents of ELD students at LAHS can still attend meetings at their school, and parents of ELD students at MVHS can attend monthly meetings at either one of the schools.

Larger joint meetings were scheduled between programs with the overall goal of providing more parents with accessible information. According to Zele, parents were having a difficult time attending so many meetings before the meetings were combined.

Additionally, attendees have decreased due to the transition of the ELD Department from LAHS to MVHS. While most of these monthly meetings are limited to the school, some are open to the whole district.

According to Pasallo, the topics of the meetings are varied, but all are designed to inform parents. Larin says the meetings are meant to be as inclusive as possible.
Zele said that they may bring lawyers to talk to parents about legal and immigration issues for an upcoming district meeting.

“We are really focusing on the Spanish-speaking communities a lot of the time,” Larin said. “But there are people who do speak English but have the same kinds of needs of learning how the school works, credits and graduation requirements.”
Pasallo sends out invitations to all Spanish-speaking parents at the school, while Zele and Larin recruit through the ELD and La Academia.

According to Pasallo, it is important for as many Spanish-speaking parents as possible to continue to attend meetings.

“Because schools are different outside the United States … some [grades and scores have] to be culturally translated,” Pasallo said.

The next celebration will be around Cinco de Mayo in May.