PSUSD hosts Family Literacy Event for English learner families
It's the start of a new chapter for the English Learner Program at Palm Springs Unified School District.
With the district hosting its first literacy event for English learner families.
Palm Springs Unified School District families were invited to get free books at the family literacy event Saturday morning. The event was at the district's service center in Palm Springs.
"Celebrating diversity celebrating literacy. So I think just the families in within our district feeling like, we're here, we see you, we hear you and we're supporting you," District coordinator of diversity and racial equity Dr. Nicole Crawford.
More than 300 people signed up for the event.
"We're just celebrating the diversity throughout Palm Springs Unified. So we gathered books that represent different cultures, different family structures, different sexual orientations to really celebrate the uniqueness of every child here in our district," said Crawford.
Students had the chance to listen to stories, check out books to take home, and do arts and crafts.
"Then expand on that learning from the reading station into our art components. And really bringing those concepts those themes to life so that students have a memorable experience of reading this book are engaging and interacting with this text," said English learner program coordinator Robin Hinchliffe.
Scholastic provided most of the books for kids to take home.
"We started with looking at our rosters of our English language learner families and seeing that many of them are duly identified as living in impoverished areas or impoverished communities and maybe not having enough access to books at home," said Hinchliffe.
The district serves more than 6000 English language learners, most from the Latino community.
Elsa Enriquez took her bilingual daughter to the event.
"I think that we all deserve an equal opportunity, no matter where we come from, or what the language that we speak," Enriquez.
District officials plan to host similar events to show their support for all families.
"It doesn't matter what your family structure is; you are a family, and we welcome you, and we want to support you," said Hinchliffe.
This event comes after PSUSD hosted a zoom meeting Tuesday for parents titled 10 Things A Parent Show Know. The district wanted all parents and guardians to know what to expect this year.
"A lot of the concerns from the parents were, what if my child has an allergy?" said PSUSD parent Lillibeth Hernandez. "You know, where can I... things constantly change? Food allergies, emergencies, emergency contact information". The form below will inform everyone what's expected, where parents can go, and what resources are available at their fingertips.
"It's just very important to be included in everything that's going on in your school sites," said Hernandez. It keeps you informed, the kids feel included when you're having these conversations at home, to know that the parents are knowing about what's going on in the community."
