PADRES Program To Expand

Carmen Contreras, second from right, tells the Padres gathering on Thursday at Grimes Elementary School about the dish she brought to the meal. At right is Reagan Duran, a parent who also brought food for the Rogers event.
Carmen Contreras, second from right, tells the Padres gathering on Thursday at Grimes Elementary School about the dish she brought to the meal. At right is Reagan Duran, a parent who also brought food for the Rogers event.

— A parenting program that debuted in Spanish has grown to include English-speaking parents at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School.

Ruth Lora was among the handful of parents who showed up for a Parents ADvancing the Readiness for Educational Success meeting after fliers went home four years ago at Bonnie Grimes. She went through the PADRES training, and the parents sat down to call others and convince them it was a good thing.

At A Glance

Active PADRES Programs

An informal survey of Rogers schools found 10 Rogers schools with active PADRES programs.

Bonnie Grimes Elementary School

Lowell Elementary School

Northside Elementary School

Reagan Elementary School

Russell D. Jones Elementary School

Frank Tillery Elementary School

Elza R. Tucker Elementary School

Elmwood Middle School

Rogers High School

Rogers Heritage High School

Source: Staff Report

“We never thought we were really going to make a difference because we were only four,” said Lora, now a PADRES facilitator at the school.

This fall, 235 people showed up for the first meeting. Assistant Principal Liz Harter estimated 90 families are involved in three PADRES groups at the school. There is a Spanish-speaking beginner group, advanced group and a beginner English group. Thursday night the three came together for a potluck dinner.

Parents Carlos and Teresa Suria said they have learned about the educational system through the meetings, but they also took home ideas on what they can do with their children.

“It’s not only teachers’ jobs, it’s parents’ too,” said Carlos Suria.

Parental involvement has helped boost test scores at the school, Harter said.

Parents want to be involved, said PADRES founder Rosie Garcia-Belina, coordinator of English language learner and migrant education technical assistance at the University of Oklahoma’s Mid-Continent Comprehensive Center. PADRES topics include parental rights and planning for college and scholarships. The program began to teach immigrant families about American schools.

“I have found that many Anglo families and many African-American families, they don’t know how the system works,” Garcia-Belina said during a visit to Bonnie Grimes last week.

“Every parent needs to know how they can do the best for their kids,” she said.

Getting parents to come to school to learn can be difficult, Garcia-Belina said. She praised the parent leaders who lead the groups and the staff at Bonnie Grimes who provide childcare and pizza to get parents to the meetings.

Not all Rogers schools have PADRES groups. Sometimes parent volunteers move or groups dwindle, administrators said. Both high schools have groups of about 10 Spanish-speaking parents, coordinators said. The Rogers High School group will begin meeting Friday, said Carlos Amargos, student relations coordinator. While he would be willing to start an English-speaking group, parental involvement often drops off in the upper grades, Amargos said.

“Parents, the more involved in school the better the kid performs. It doesn’t matter what grade,” he said.

At Tucker Elementary, the school has set aside an entire room for PADRES parents. Minerva Cosio, a bilingual clerical aid, recruits parents from behind the front desk and helps facilitate a two-hour meeting that starts at 8 a.m. After class, the parents often stay, volunteering around the school and eating lunch with their children, Cosio said.

Springdale schools are considering adapting the program, said Christen Graham, English as a second language program specialist. Family literacy groups bring parents to the elementary schools. Many Spanish-speaking families are second or third generation, Graham said. But a similar program could support Marshallese families in junior high.

Bentonville’s English as a second language population comes from India, Vietnam and several Spanish-speaking countries, said Kimberly S. Burgess, English language development specialist. While the district has not adopted PADRES as a program, district representatives have a variety of community events, Burgess said.

Bilingual parents worry about confusing children by using different languages, said Bani Lopez, parent facilitator at Bonnie Grimes PADRES.

“They want them to learn English so they’ll kinda stay away from the Spanish,” Lopez said.

Her first language was Spanish, but her parents found it difficult to help her with homework because of a language barrier. Lopez, who is bilingual, regrets not speaking Spanish more with her own children.

Garcia-Belina tells parents to talk with and read to their children no matter the language.

“You don’t know English? Don’t worry. You can talk to your child,” she said.

Better parenting skills are a universal need, said Bonnie Grimes administrators. Last year the school launched Parents as Partners for a half-dozen English-speaking parents, but combined it with PADRES at parent request.

Why should there be separate groups, asked parent Reagan Duran. School changes and parents have to keep up, said Duran who has had children enrolled at Bonnie Grimes for 11 years.

Most of the families who attend Bonnie Grimes live nearby and the school operates like a family. PADRES meetings start with a quick meal before parents shuttle off to English or Spanish classrooms. The lessons for the beginner groups are the same.

“It kinda helps to bring the community together,” Duran said.

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