Migrant Education: Administrators, Parents Discuss Bilingual Needs at Fennville

Fennville school administrators and parents representing the district's Hispanic community pledged to work together to improve communications in a meeting Tuesday night.

But both sides failed to agree on whether the district's choice of a non-Spanish speaker as its director of migrant and bilingual programs would undermine services the district provides to Hispanic students.

In the meeting that lasted almost two hours, about a half dozen parents, four bilingual paraprofessionals and three administrators discussed their differences while six children played in the background.

Superintendent Mark Dobias told parents that his choice for the position was Alice Huyser, who has been with the district for 27 years.

"I plan to use my staff to be the liaison," Huyser told parents when introducing herself. "We have to do a better job with our kids and the community and solve the problems when we can."

Dobias said Huyser has the experience and training for the position because she worked for many years with the migrant program and she would also be a good fit to help with the curriculum decisions at the district. The curriculum director position had been eliminated due to financial concerns, he said.

"I felt she had an extreme amount of experience," he told parents. "We have to have a way for parents to feel they can come and talk ... regardless of who's in the position."

For some of them, that might prove to be a little too difficult.

Maria Mendoza, who had one of her children graduate from the district since she moved from California three years ago, said last year one of her grandchildren was sent to school in the wrong bus. After calling the school several times trying to figure out where the child was, she had to call her two daughters-in-law so they could contact the school because nobody at the office could speak Spanish.

"I just want to know: Are they going to put someone that can help us or not?" she said in Spanish at the end of the meeting. Most of the meeting was not translated and Mendozs said she had a hard time following the conversation.

Her case, parents said, represents many parents that do not feel comfortable attending meetings or talking to teachers when there isn't a person they know they can turn to when they have a problem.

"I don't know her too much," Mendoza said of Emily Aleman, the former director of the migrant program, who left the district to move to another job. "But she was able to help me when I came."

Parents argued that the staff does not have the training or administrative status to fairly represent them in front of higher administrators or the board of education, and said the load of teachers aids would dramatically increase if they were required to translate for parents.

"(This was) a tremendous meeting," said board president Tony Lungaro. "I hope it's the springboard to the accomplishment of great things."

"I think parents should have a vote in the decision of the district" regarding the position said Rebecca Westphal of the Farmworkers Legal Services, who is representing the group.