5/5 "Right now, we understand that as a district, we are in a difficult position with the budget. But I think a great thing would be for us to have more interpreters, because currently our interpreters have between four to seven schools. They don’t have enough time to at least spend one day in a school. For example, in my case, I have six. If I want to be at my schools, I have to create a rotation because I cannot just be a specific day in a school. With our parents, it just helps that we can let them know that we're here. At my schools, I leave my phone number hanging. I always ask the person at the front, ‘Can I just leave this hanging here?’ and it has my picture, it has my phone number, has my email. Because we want parents to see that, to know that there's a text, like, you can text me here or you can send me an email here. I think so far, we have improved a lot with communication because now communication is being sent in English, Spanish, the magazines are going in English, in Spanish, we have the interpretation in the board meetings – so I think we are doing really good. I want to say that even now, more than ever, our services are required, because the families now feel afraid. Families don't want to go out. Families don't know who to talk with. We are just a phone call away, and they have to know that regardless of everything that is happening right now, everything with the politics, they still have rights. The kids still deserve an education, and they also deserve to feel welcome and safe in the school environment – and not just the children. We want the families to feel the same. We we want them to know that we are there for whatever they need to support them. If they have even a little question to not be afraid, to make sure that they save our numbers, that they let us know, and we are going to let the school know. We have seen some cases of people that are like, ‘I'm afraid to send my child to school, but at the same time, I'm also afraid that they are going to send me the social worker.’ So, that this is something that we can all work together. We can be proactive. And it’s there, when there is a relationship of trust for when we have deal with the schools that comes in handy because we all can search for a way to help these families, to make them feel safe, to make them feel welcome – to make them trust us as a system." #SPARKstories (fb)

4/5 "I think that, like a lot of families that come from other countries, especially from our Latin American countries, they come in the search for what we call ‘the American dream.’ And the American dream, of course, is for a better life, a better education for their children, or maybe they come with a goal. Like, I'm just going to go, I'm going to work, and then I'm going to make a better life for me once I go back to my country. But, sometimes, we have things in the way that can make these be difficult. The first thing that you see is that there are language barriers, and there's cultural barriers because sometimes it's not just enough to have the information in Spanish, because if that were true, you would say, I'm just going to put it in Google translate. But no, because each of our countries is so different and so rich in the language that maybe you say something for somebody, but this other person cannot understand it, although they speak Spanish. So, this is the role of helping the parents not just receive this information in their language, but also in a way that they can understand it. We need to help the parents, we need to have these services for these parents to be able to communicate, to express their thoughts because if I'm going to have just a phone or something, and I put something, maybe that's not what I mean to say. We need people, actual people, to be able to work with these parents to help them communicate with the teachers, to help them hear the teachers when the kids need things, and know what can they do to help? There are a lot of things that we can tell them and that they can help with, but sometimes, there's like that fear that ‘If I go to the school, nobody's going to be there, or if I call somebody, it's just going to pick up in English, and I don't know how to speak in English.’ We want parents to feel welcome. When they feel welcome enough, they are going to come, they are going to participate, they are going to be active in the education of our children. That's what we want. We want to create the welcoming environment, not just for our kids, but also for our families." #SPARKstories (fb)