Families at this Shawnee Mission School District event heard message that they belong
The Shawnee Mission School District wants every family to feel like they belong in the educational community. To help with the goal, the district held a multilingual community event aimed at making sure parents who don’t speak English well, or at all, have access to all the information their English-speaking counterparts do.
After English, the languages with the most speakers in the Shawnee Mission district are Spanish, Arabic and Dari, according to Kaitlin Shulman, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging coordinator for the district.
Translators for those languages were on hand to help at the event, held at Shawnee Mission West Sept. 16. Families who signed up for the event in advance could request a translator for whatever language they needed.
The event grew out of a bilingual back-to-school night the district has been hosting for its Spanish-speaking families for several years. Shulman hoped that by moving the event to a school site and adding additional languages, the district could help more families find the information they need.
“We want families to know we are here to support, and so making it more of a community event, and then offering resources for them to be able to access (what) they need — it’s kind of shifting the lens a little,” Shulman said.
In addition to the other three languages, Shulman said there were requests for Punjabi, Pashto and Persian.
Many organizations attended the event, including Johnson County Community College, Parents as Teachers, Headstart, KC Scholars, Sunflower House, Latinx Education Collaborative, League of Women Voters, Kansas State University, El Centro, Johnson County Mental Health and the district’s Health Partnership Clinic.
District representatives were also on hand to help parents learn to use the computer systems for accessing report cards, getting information about the school food service and reporting school attendance.
Shulman said they’d hoped to be able to provide flu shots at the event, but weren’t able to get a supply this early. They were able to hand out free school supplies — such as pencil boxes, colored pencils, glue sticks, erasers and highlighters — via the district’s migrant education program.
Connie Springfield, associate principal at Shawnee Mission Northwest, understands the perspective of the families. When she was a child, her mom only spoke Spanish, and that put her in the position of navigating things in English.
Having resources available in different languages changes that scenario for lots of people.
“This way, the parent makes the direct connection,” Springfield said. “A lot of times, bilingual kids are helping each other, but they’re only getting teenager advice.”
Access was a big theme of the event.
“It makes a world of difference. When you don’t have that interpreter, you can’t access. You can’t engage like you should,” said Matthew Andersen, assistant director of curriculum and instruction for the district.
Shulman said she wants parents to know that they are seeing the needs out there and trying to show that the district cares. The district plans to have the event again next year, she said.
“We have so much that makes Shawnee Mission diverse — culturally, linguistically — and we’re trying to recognize that, acknowledge that, celebrate that and then provide the resources for needs at the same time.”