Latino parent group offers support to bilingual families

 

Being a high schooler is tedious enough, but being a high schooler with parents who don’t speak English is extremely difficult for students and their parents. About 22 percent of the CVHS student body identifies as Latino or Hispanic. Many of these students have parents who speak only Spanish.

To remedy this, CVHS has formed a Latino Parent Group, led by Spanish teacher Thelma Mooney. The group is for all Latino parents who want to get more involved in their kids’ educations. The group aims to discuss important topics such as college readiness, homework help, teaching curriculum, and school policies with Spanish-speaking parents to help them better understand what is going on in their children’s academics.

The group also hopes to put in place an after school tutoring program for Latino students who may struggle with English and fall behind in classes.

“The group is still a work in progress, we’ve only met once as a whole group,” Mooney admitted.

She has high hopes, however, for the success of the group. Mooney’s goal is to enable better communication between students, parents, and teachers.

“We want to offer a bridge, to start the two-way communication,” she said.

The group will benefit both parents and students.

“Where there is more communication between the parents and the school, the students do better in school,” Mooney said.

This group is a great representation of the cultural diversity of CVHS and the great resources that are available to students with unique cultural backgrounds.