The Lyceum was filled with Korean, Mongolian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Russian chatter as families in the district-wide Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC) met for one of their four meetings during the school year, Dr. Christine Anderson, Assistant Director of Multilingual Learners, said.
BPAC is a state-mandated committee of multilingual parents and teachers, Emma Cintado, Multilingual Instructional Assistant, said. The purpose of BPAC is to help students and their families navigate and understand school, Cintado said. The committee ensures that multilingual families with students transitioning to an English speaking school have a voice in decisions that affect their children, she added.
“BPAC aims to help students and their families feel welcomed and understood so that they can come to us to ask questions,” Cintado said.
The meetings are a discussion not only amongst one large group of parents, but also smaller groups based on the languages that make up the Multilingual Learners Program, Anderson said. Parents can also review how the budget should be spent and offer suggestions to improve the experience of their students, Anderson said.
“Parents should have a say in what the enhancement of multilingual programming looks like,” Anderson said. “BPAC serves important function of providing that input.”
There is a multilingual liaison, a person who helps groups work smoothly and is fluent in English and the groups’ language, for every language group in the program, Jennifer Lee, Korean Language and Family Liaison, said. The liaisons help with the transitions and tasks that come with being new to a school and language, like communicating with counselors or navigating PowerSchool, Lee added.
“Students in the American school system for the first time can be overwhelmed,” Lee said. “We are supporting them in daily life as an academic resource.”
Liaisons play a large role at BPAC meetings, Ismael De La Luz, Spanish Language and Family Liaison, said. Members can pick up a headset that will connect to a liaison’s transmitter, so that during a guest speaker or a presentation, liaisons can directly translate and allow every member to understand what is being said in their native language, De La Luz explained.
“To know there’s someone who knows their language, parents feel more comfortable to approach whatever person it is to address questions and concerns that they have,” De La Luz said.
