CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The Optimist Club of Marshalltown welcomed guest speaker Rachel Inks at a recent lunch meeting at Mama DiGrado’s. Inks is the English Language Learner and Migrant Coordinator for the Marshalltown Community School District. She is the manager of the MCSD Welcome Center at the Orpheum Theater where families new to Marshalltown come to register children for classes and to find out about other resources that are available to families. According to Inks, more than 30% of MCSD students qualify for ELL services. She provided handouts showing also that 55.73% of enrolled students are multilingual, whose first language is one other than English. In fact, Inks noted, Marshalltown ranks 4th in Iowa for the total number of ELL students, behind Des Moines, Sioux City and Iowa City. Pictured are Optimist Club President Greg DeSaulniers and Inks visiting after the meeting.