3555 19th Street, East Moline

Present: ELL teachers - Margarita MojicaKrista Bruder; ELL parents – Adriana Martinez; Kokou Loumedjinon; Maria Aguilera; Koffi Ama-Agbonou; LaVonne Peterson, Assoc Superintendent

Spanish language translation – Margarita Mojica;

French/Arabic translation – Vinyon Amouzouvi

A G E N D A

Look Back:

BPAC Meeting Dates

June 5, 2010Review of TBE/TPI application (Done)

August 14, 2010Develop a survey for 2010 bilingual parent meetings (Done)

October 16 27Bilingual Advisory Training (required content)

February 5, 2011How to help students and parents understand school in the US

For Today:

Bilingual Advisory Training

  • Purpose of BPAC
  • How often?
  • Advise
  • Plan
  • Inform
  • Your role

Review results of survey

Plan two Bilingual Parent Meetings

  • When
  • Content

Meeting called to order at 10:35

LaVonne Peterson welcomed parents and introductions were made. LaVonne noted that this meeting, on Oct 27, is the rescheduled Oct 16 meeting. Due to family and work commitments, attendance at the Oct 16 meeting wasn’t sufficient to go ahead with the meeting so it was rescheduled to Oct. 27.

Minutes of August 14 meeting were reviewed.

LaVonne conducted the required bilingual advisory training. The purpose of BPAC is to develop the capacity of BPAC parents to be effective community leaders. The goal is to enhance their participation with schools and to help them be more effective advocates for all ELL students and parents. BPAC is required to meet four times per years. For two of the four meetings, specific content is required. One of the meetings must be an annual review of the TBE/TPI grant application; a second meeting must include bilingual advisory committee training.

One role of a BPAC is to advise the District on various aspects of programming for ELLs. This can include how funding is spent and staff is assigned. Another role is to assist the District in planning activities for ELL students and parents. For example, at the August 14 meeting, the BPAC developed a survey that was sent to all parents of ELLs to gather information on what topics would be on interest for future District bilingual parent meetings. The BPAC receives information about District initiatives and issues and provides information to parents of ELLs.

LaVonne stressed the importance of attending BPAC meetings. Another important role is as an advocate for the ELL community and a communicator of information. BPAC members act as a liaison between the ELL community and schools. LaVonne also shared that the Bilingual Parent Summit will be on May 7th this year. We hope to have a large group go again this year.

At this time, we reviewed the results of the survey that was developed at the August meeting and sent home to all parents of ELLs. The purpose of the survey was to gather information to schedule and plan future bilingual parent meetings. About 90 surveys were returned. (The survey and results are attached)

A result of note was that 53 parents said they have never attended a Bilingual/ESL parent meeting while 37 said they had. We will work to improve that piece of data and get more ELL parents involved.

The survey revealed that the majority of respondents preferred meeting on Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30. Forty-nine said Wednesday; 32 said Saturday from 10:00 to 11:00; and 16 said Sunday from 3:00 to 4:00. Therefore, future BPAC and bilingual parent meetings will be held on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30.

The final survey question was about possible topics for future BPAC meetings. The two topics that received the most votes are 1) How to motivate your child after school (68 votes); and 2) How to help students with homework (64 votes).

With the feedback garnered from the survey, the BPAC changed the date of the February 5 meeting to Wednesday, February 9, 5:30 to 6:30. The topic will be on motivating students with a particular focus on the role of parents. The meeting will be held at Wells Elementary. The BPAC group will meet prior the parent meeting for its 4th meeting of the year.

The Committee also scheduled a second bilingual parent meeting for April 13, 2011. The topic will be how to help students with homework. Location to be determined.

The meeting adjourned at 11:30.

Following the meeting, LaVonne met with Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Aguilera to make arrangements for the ISBE ELL monitoring visit team to interview them as BPAC parents. The meeting will take place at Glenview at 1:00 on November 18.