One Parent at a Time (or Two)

picture: Little David and I playing music at EL Foster Elementary School.

This is the story of two parents we know at EL Foster Elementary School, Janeen and Lisa, who could have sent their children to their neighborhood school (fancy part of town, with all the frills that go with it). There's nothing wrong with that, but this is their story....

Instead they send their children (like we do, although we don't live in the fancy part of town), to EL Foster, a lower income, free/reduced lunch dual immersion school in the "rough" part of town.

Why do they do it?

A few nights ago, both parents came to our PTO (Parent-Teacher-Organization) meeting. We had over 20 people, 5 Spanish speaking parents and more. Carlos was there for the first time, I met him about a year ago. Shy, didn't speak much English, not very involved in the school, he's from Panama, his wife and him met there while she was there for a few years.

But on this night Carlos was very excited, he is a Paramedic and knows First Aid, and so next Tuesday, Carlos will be donating his time (normally $65/course) to teach First Aid to parents at EL Foster in both Spanish and English!


Miguel was also there, remember him from previous posts? He and his wife Maria and their friend were all at the meeting for only the second time this year. During the planning time of our Festival de Familias in May (May Fest), Miguel volunteered to organize games, sack races and balloon races, we'll give out a gift card to Country Buffet as a prize. He is all excited and called me today to begin planning.

We've enjoyed getting to know Miguel and Carlos, principal Ms. Leigh, vice principal Ms. Chumacero and teachers - Ms. Alma, Ms. Amanda, Ms. Amy, Ms. Rebecca, Ms. Valentino, Dr. Vizcarra (also from LA!) and many more.

Lisa and Jeanine both spoke to Rachelle today at school to tell her what a difference Foster makes in their lives. And that the meeting, seeing the different cultures coming together, hearing Ms. Leigh the principal, seeing me involved (male Latino in PTA! Unheard of!) all reminded them of why they are at Foster.

This stimulates parents to send their children to Foster, which makes us at 110% enrollment (mostly dual immersion) while the Middle School down the street is at 30%, which means we don't have to lay off any teachers during this economic crisis.

That's a real life stimulus.