Award-winners honored at the Statewide MSDR Conference included, BACK ROW, from left, Irma Oliver, Kimm Minkler, Charlotte Billingsley, Jeanette Bowers, Audrey Dingle, Senia Farias and Andres Ibarra, and FRONT ROW, from left, Anayele Casas, Olana Torres and Sahira Tapia.

Statewide MSDR Conference Provides Training, Inspiration

By Editor Ken Harvey

Merced Flores wanted to drop out of school as early as first grade. Luckily he didn’t because now he’s one of the top migrant educators in the country.

Flores, the keynote speaker at this year’s Statewide MSDR Conference, loved school in kindergarten, even though he couldn’t speak English and received no help from his school to learn the language. Still, he had a best friend – a deaf mute who also couldn’t understand or speak to anyone else.

His friend wasn’t in his class in first grade, but Flores still enjoyed going, even though the teacher sat him at the far side of the room by himself. When two new Latino students joined the class, he was even happier, but now all three were ignored.

“We sat there for days, not knowing what people were saying,” Flores recalls.

Then one day he got brave and said something to one of his new friends in Spanish. The teacher charged over to them angrily. “No. English only!” she shouted.

The teacher proceeded to tape their mouths shut as the Anglo students laughed and made fun.

“I didn’t understand why they were laughing at me,” Flores says. “I hadn’t done anything to them.”

The next day his mother had to force him to go to school, and the other two Latino students never returned.

“I always wondered what happened to them and what they could have achieved. What good they could have accomplished if they had stayed in school,” Flores says.

He was held back in first grade, and his family started migrating a lot. His father had abandoned his wife and 13 children, and Flores’ mother struggled just to provide food.

“My family lived in desperate situations. We didn’t have a lot of food. We were very poor,” he recounts.

Then one day his teacher announced a father and son banquet and invited Flores specifically to attend with a substitute father. Flores was so excited. His mom found some newer jeans without patches for him to wear, and he and his sister went through the garbage cans in a richer part of town until they found some nicer tennis shoes to wear – even though they were two sizes too big.

An Anglo man picked him up and took him to the dinner, and Flores was so proud that he could go along with the other kids and their fathers.

Flores is grateful that someone would have that kind of compassion to take his time to go someplace with a boy he didn’t even know.

“For him to do this made a long-lasting effect on me,” says Flores. “It gave me a higher standard of compassion that I adopted for myself.”

As he prepared to enter high school, Flores told his mother he didn’t want to migrate anymore. She agreed, even though it meant even greater economic hardship.

In his junior year he heard about a place called “college” that the Anglo kids planned to attend after high school, and they were taking special classes to prepare.

He had to fight to get into those classes. And in Algebra II he was struggling to even get a “C,” but the teacher announced some extra credit that would help him get a “B.” He took home an armful of library books, but that day the electricity was turned off at his house because his mom could not pay the bill.

She cooked dinner in the back yard and found some candles so Flores could do his homework and get the “B” he need to go to college.

The next day his teacher compared the “mess” he handed in, completed in pencil and spotted with candle wax, to the nicely typed report of another student. The teacher ripped up Flores’ paper and threw it in the garbage can.

“It was something I’ll never forget,” he says. “And I had a hell of a time getting through my last two years of high school.”

Flores did ultimately make it to college on a baseball scholarship and achieved a bachelor’s degree in psychology/sociology and Spanish, and later a master’s in education.

His education career included service as director of the ESL/Bilingual Education Program for Portland Public Schools, director of the Marion Education Service District’s Bilingual Education Program, director of the state’s Migrant Education Service Center, state director of Migrant Education, and the state’s first Latino associate superintendent at the Oregon State Department of Education. After leaving the Department of Education, Flores became dean of Adult and High School Community Learning Programs at Mt. Hood Community College and also provided consulting services across the country.

Flores’ exemplary service was recognized when he was given the national Excellence in Migrant Education Award.

He has now just become the deputy director and national identification and recruitment (I/R) coordinator for the national Migrant Education Resource Center (MERC).

Flores and other representatives from the newly established MERC piloted their training workshops at the MSDR conference.

“Today’s problems are just as great” as when he was a child, Flores says. “It’s just a different set of children. We still have children who move around and families that still make huge sacrifices for them.

“You in migrant education have the most wonderful job in the world because of the impact you can have on these children,” he says. “Don’t ever compromise the education of our children. We must provide the very best.”

CONFERENCE PROVIDES STAFF TRAINING

MERC is charged with providing identification and recruitment (I/R) training nationwide for migrant directors, recruiters, home visitors and clerks, helping them more effectively locate migrant students and determine their eligibility for MEP-funded programs.

Within Washington State, that responsibility is also shared with the Office of Migrant Student Data and Recruitment (MSDR), which it, in part, fulfills at the annual conference.

Three MERC presenters provided 15 workshop sessions at the conference, including “Migrant Education Program (MEP) History and Eligibility,” “Tools to Determine Child Eligibility,” “Interview Process” (two parts), and “Quality Control.”

“Since MERC was providing this pilot training, we invited MEP staff from Oregon to attend,” explains MSDR Director Lee Campos, and 22 of the 220 participants in the conference were Oregon staff members, mostly recruiters.

“This pilot training was beneficial to MERC as it gave them early feedback on their curriculum prior to rolling it out on a national basis,” says Campos, “and it helped meet I/R training needs here in Washington State, too.”

The majority of the workshop sessions at the conference were still taught by MSDR and other Washington MEP officials. The directors of the three Migrant Education Regional Offices (MEROs) and other migrant education leaders, for example, provided workshops on how local federal project directors need to budget migrant funds, prioritize services and prepare migrant grant applications and reports.

The most important step in preparing a migrant grant, according to MERO 189 Director Mary Kernel, is conducting a needs assessment.

“If you are going to spend your time in doing something well, this is the one,” she says. “It all starts with a good needs assessment. Then everything else falls into place.”

Kernel explains that migrant students who are at risk of not meeting state standards are a high priority, but of highest priority are those at-risk students who also have had their school year interrupted.

Setting such priorities “is the thing the feds are looking for,” she says. “Everything anchors on the needs assessment.”

In developing the needs assessment, migrant educators need to use the best data available. The data needed includes basic information stored in the Migrant Student Information System (MSIS) maintained by MSDR, state assessments, district assessments, teachers’ assessments of students, demographics such as the percentage of English language learners among the student population, student attendance, mobility patterns, etc.

In writing the narrative statement of need for a grant application, federal projects directors need to include the sources of their information.

“Nine times out of 10, this is the place where districts have problems,” says MERO 105 Director Thom Romero.  But if sources are clear, it is easier to respond to questions and, if necessary, to make changes.

Districts are also required to develop plans to enhance parent involvement.  No other funding requirement takes higher priority.

“The main thing we need to remember is that students whose parents are involved earn higher grades, achieve have higher graduation rates and go on to higher education,” says Kernel.

Included in the plan must be development of a parent advisory committee (PAC). The school district must consult with the PAC on program planning and on operations. Kernel notes that some districts think it is adequate to just hold a few quick meetings, tell parents what the district plans to do, ask if there are any questions or comments, and call it good.

That is not adequate, the MERO 189 director says, adding that districts should plan monthly meetings and work to develop parents’ capacity to make meaningful input.

To help facilitate parent meetings and enhance attendance, Kernel says, migrant funds can be spent on child care, transportation, food and refreshments.

A staff development plan is also required, and districts need to make sure any planned training is research-based to specifically address migrant needs, says Romero.

TOP MIGRANT STAFF, SERVICE PROVIDERS, STUDENTS HONORED

A number of Migrant Education Program staff, service providers and students were honored at the annual banquet, as part of the conference.

The Federal Projects Director of the Year was Jeanette Bowers of Cashmere School District. She was lauded for her contagious enthusiasm and commitment to excellence. She helps teachers motivate students, helps provide cutting-edge tools, helps students apply for grants and scholarships, and has helped make the district’s PAC a model program.

The Records Clerk of the Year was Audrey Dingle of Cashmere School District. She was praised for “sustained and relentless commitment” to help migrant students.

Cheryl Koenig of Manson School District, Dolores Martinez of Warden School District, Charlotte Billingsley of Palisades School District, and Maria Viscalla of Mt. Vernon School District were all honored for over 20 years of service to the Migrant Education Program. Koenig, Martinez and Billingsley all recently retired.

Brisa Vasquez of Kiona Benton School District was honored as the PASS Student of the Year, and Kim Holladay of Cashmere School District was recognized as the PASS Contact Person of the Year.  PASS is a semi-independent curriculum available free to migrant students who need to keep up or catch up with their studies despite frequent moves, work obligations, and other challenges.

Brisa had to work cherries and other crops with her family, which caused her to fall behind in school and ultimately drop out in 10^th grade. However, she wanted to become a nurse, so she returned to school. When it appeared she could not graduate with her class, Brisa was tempted to drop out again, but PASS mentor Kimm Minkler encouraged her to catch up by enrolling in PASS courses. That’s just what she needed.

“Brisa is a shining example of a student who turned adversity into accomplishment,” said State Migrant Education Director Alfonso Anaya.

Migrant Health Supervisor Mike Taylor honored the Columbia Valley Community Health Dental Services and the Washington Dental Service Foundation Smilemobile for their support of the migrant health program.

And the HACER (Helping Migrants Acquire Educational Resources) Foundation announced 10 recipients of $2,000 college scholarships and eight recipients of tuition waivers. They included:

$2,000 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS: Oscar A. Zazuel, Pasco; Raymond Koopmans, Mount Vernon; Veronica Escoto, Manson; Analilia Farias, Forks; Senia Farias, Royal City; Rafael Gonzalez, East Wenatchee; Clarissa Garza, Othello; Andres Ibarra, Wahluke; Maria Guadalupe Barajas, Wahluke;  and Yannet Granados, Wahluke.

TUITION/FEE WAIVERS TO CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Daniela Z. Aguilar, Mabton; Elizabeth Hernandez, Bridgeport; and Luis Edgar de la O, Yakima.

TUITION/FEE WAIVERS TO HERITAGE UNIVERSITY: Patricia Sanchez, Yakima; Anayelli Casas, Sunnyside; Julio A. Ramirez, Granger; Lorena Barajas, Yakima; and Diana Torres, Yakima.

Campos says this year’s was one of the best conferences MSDR has ever conducted, as verified by excellent evaluations submitted by participants.

Next year’s conference is already scheduled for Aug. 14-15, again at the Yakima Convention Center.