T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Marshalltown High School ESL Migrant Instructor Tatyana Collins, center, and MCSD Family Liaison Chit Phuu, right, address the school board about the Parent Academy for migrant families during the Nov. 18 board meeting. Also pictured is MCSD Director of Instruction Shauna Smith, left.

Moving to a new town can be hard. Moving to a new country and not speaking the language makes the difficulty of adjusting even more pronounced.

Marshalltown is one of Iowa’s most diverse cities with immigrants from all over the world calling the community home, and it is estimated that at least 50 different languages are spoken. Because of this reality, staff with the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) have launched a Parent Academy aimed at migrant families and ensuring that they are doing everything possible to help their children succeed.

MCSD Family Liaison Chit Phuu, Marshalltown High School ESL Migrant Instructor Tatyana Collins and English Learner Program Coordinator Rachel Inks are the driving forces behind the 8-week course, which is held at the B.A. Niblock MCSD Orpheum Welcome Center and includes both morning and evening offerings. The inaugural fall class recently graduated, and the second winter session is currently in progress.

“At the Welcome Center, we really recognize that when you enroll a student, you enroll the whole family. So being mindful of those families’ stories and how they may have journeyed to Marshalltown, the many moves they’ve made or countries they’ve come from, really asks us to think about what barriers they might have in helping their student become a student who is regularly attending, become a student who is going to grow in their proficiencies and become a student who is college and career ready,” Inks said. “Some of those factors are really unique for our migrant and immigrant families in really having a good lens on what school and American education looks like — and, in addition, not just that cultural lift they’re struggling with, but it’s also a linguistic lift too.”

Each of the two-hour sessions focuses on a different topic based on Luis Cruz’s Soluciones project: 1. Family time is priority; 2. Model conscious behavior; 3. Manage and prioritize time; 4. Grow readers and writers; 5. Be responsible and organized; 6. School success is a priority; and 7. Focus on numbers before a graduation celebration the final week. For the fall class, Inks estimated that the highest number of participants in a single session was 23, but about 15 families consistently attended.

While Spanish is still the most common native language for new migrant families, the group leaders use translation tools to accommodate individuals of all backgrounds as well as cognitive science research, mnemonics, body language and repetitions.

“I think for our families, too, it’s about their journey too in building language development in English, building that confidence, and then also knowing that what they’re doing is becoming a role model for their children as well,” Inks said. “We know that parents can motivate their children just by leading by example.”

And although the concepts they promote may seem broad or obvious at times, Inks added, parents who go on the journey together are more likely to find strength and solidarity while making new friends along the way.

“(They’re) very receptive. They’re leaving and saying ‘It was so much fun.’ And not only us. We’re having fun. The participants are having fun and (so are) the (guest) speakers. We’ve had two volunteers today,” Collins said, noting that school board member Elizabeth Wise and her mother had made an appearance on Wednesday. “It’s that laughter and fun, a very positive environment, and I think that’s what parents come back for, just being empowered.”

So far, Phuu said participants have come from countries Mexico, Cuba, Honduras and Haiti, and over time, they begin to open up to each other, share their struggles and provide advice on adjusting to their new lives. The class is free to attend, and the leaders already have spring and summer sessions planned in the relatively near future.

“We hope to have it build to a place where when we enroll the student and the family, we’re able to say ‘Hey, here’s our next session. We’re gonna get you locked into that attendance right now and give you that exact handout of the schedule so they know it’s coming and they’re looking forward to it,” Inks said. “And we’ve had some success already with that with our newest family that has registered a couple weeks ago.”

Efforts to nurture family engagement and even bring in representatives from local nonprofits that can provide services to new families will be ongoing as the academy’s offerings continue to grow going forward.

“We would definitely welcome any of the nonprofit agencies or the community agencies that want to join us and think about how they could partner with us to reach out,” Inks said.

Childcare accommodations are available for both sessions, and those who come with their parents in the evening can watch a fun movie in the Orpheum Theater.

“They all need to learn. It’s great information, and they get to bring home all sorts of things,” Collins said. “Every session, they come home with something, and that’s our goal — to have them bring something that they can refer back (to) or look at.”

During the Nov. 18 school board meeting, Collins and Phuu had the opportunity to present on Parent Academy, and the families themselves also attended, with some of them speaking up about their experiences and Collins translating from Spanish.

“It was so important to hear opportunities that exist for the children, especially to listen to educational leaders like (school board member) Karina Hernandez talking about educational opportunities for college and careers,” one mother said. “As a newcomer from Cuba, all these things are new. The educational system is new, so learning about schools in the American system is very important.”

“Thank you so much for offering this program for immigrants to learn English and providing opportunities for families and children and mothers and little ones too,” another added.

Another parent highlighted the benefit of learning the lessons in a group setting because they encouraged her to “focus on those things more” and hoped the workshops would continue well into the future.

Additional sessions open to all parents will be held at the Welcome Center beginning in February.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

maharry@timesrepublican.com.