Parents Learn How to Untangle Red Tape

The parents at Westmont Elementary School in Pomona wanted to know why the school’s budget for non-English-speaking students had been decreased. So in December they asked for an explanation.

And they asked. And they asked. And they asked.

Three months later, the money issue is not fully resolved. But the parents’ efforts have left them with a serious lesson in navigating an American bureaucracy--one useful for any parent. Now they make their requests in writing, citing the state Education Code. They surf the Internet for information and know whom to call at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The elements of the conflict at Westmont Elementary School are increasingly familiar.

On one side are parents, mostly immigrants fluent only in Spanish. Though deeply concerned, many had never bumped heads with a bureaucracy. Before exercising their rights they had to learn what their rights were.

On the other side is a public school system that, like many others, is not quick to respond to difficult questions from anybody.

“We’re accepted to volunteer in the classroom, to make copies, all those things,” said Ninfa Vela, a Westmont parent. “When you get to the point where you question the system and you ask questions, they put up a barrier. Where’s the teamwork? That’s the thing that really disappoints me.”

It all began in December, at a meeting of the school’s bilingual advisory committee. Westmont Principal Roberta Cendejas told parents that funds for the school’s Limited English Proficiency budget were $30,000 less than the previous year.

There were more students in the district learning English, Cendejas said, and less money to go around.

Students in the Pomona Unified School District, like other students statewide, are tested to determine their proficiency in English. Each year, the information is forwarded to the state Department of Education and is used to award districts their share of a fund to help students who are learning English.

The district’s distribution of the so-called LEP (for Limited English Proficient) money to individual schools is based on how many students need help learning to speak English.

Parents reacted to news of the budget cuts with worries that their children would fall behind.

“If the children are not provided with all the resources, they will do very poorly, especially in standardized testing,” Vela said.

Westmont Elementary is in a low-income Pomona neighborhood. Of the about 708 students who attend the school, 281 need help learning English, according to the district. About 60% of the student body qualifies for a federally funded free lunch and breakfast program. Many of the rest qualify for subsidized meals.

The campus has its share of problems.

“Our school is falling apart,” said fifth-grade teacher Miguel Santiago. “The district officials need to come here and they need to sit in one classroom . . . for a month under the dust, without proper lighting and without windows and try to do their work.”

Vela said the district had performed its count of students who spoke limited English on Sept. 27, before Westmont administrators finished their own campus tally. The district did not inform the school of the date the tally would be taken and 61 students were not counted.

Hearing this at the December meeting, the parents decided to write a letter, in Spanish, to the school district, requesting that the $30,000 be restored for Westmont. The parents believed that if the district had erred, the children should not suffer.

Conflicting Version of Events

But as they inquired about the problem, parents heard a conflicting version of events.

In a conversation with Vela, district administrator Irene O’Brien said the fault lay with the school. Westmont administrators had not entered student names into the district’s computer system in a timely manner, so they were not counted, Vela recalled being told.

In January, parents asked the principal to set up a meeting with district officials. “Where is the truth?” asked parent Maria Carmen Perez.

Westmont administrators, Vela said, were not receptive to the idea.

She recalled telling Cendejas, “ ‘I really respect you. This is nothing personal. We just want answers to our questions. . . . We want to learn the system. We need the information.”

In the weeks that followed, the parents kept pressing the issue, asking questions, rallying other parents. But with the school administration hoping to put the issue to rest, and parents hoping to find answers and have the funds restored, chasms grew and frustration ran high on both sides.

“We have had a series of meetings to try and clarify the situation and illustrate the support we’re getting from the district,” Cendejas said.

Some parents were afraid to confront administrators, and saw such efforts as an affront to the principal.

Perez, a mother of three and member of the district’s bilingual committee, was not one of them. Her 2-year-old son has gone to so many parents’ meetings that at home he raises his hand before speaking. Parents keeping quiet, she said, only made the problem worse.

“Somebody has to say something,” Perez said. “I did it because it concerns me. It’s my school. It’s my community.”

Few of their efforts seemed effective until February. That month parents contacted the state Department of Education and discovered an important tool.

“We learned there was a process for obtaining this information and we followed this process,” Vela said.

They began making their requests in writing and in accordance with the state’s Uniform Complaint Procedures. Their letters now include citations from the state Education Code section that guarantees their right to the information. They have written directly to the superintendent of the district and the school board.

Since they started following the formal complaint process, the parents have been contacted by a representative of the school district requesting a meeting. They have chosen instead to wait for a written response. The district has 60 days to respond to their inquiry, which includes a request for a five-year accounting on the LEP program.

Late last month, Cendejas told parents that the school would receive about $16,000 in additional funds. The money will come from a reading program grant and a state fund for after-school tutoring, O’Brien said.

“They waited until the Department of Education had been notified for them to start taking our concerns seriously,” Vela said.

Positive Reactions

It also helped that parents began calling English- and Spanish-language media. Then they learned what happened.

O’Brien said that she set a Sept. 27 deadline to count students, but failed to notify principals.

“I did not give that information out,” O’Brien said. “I have told everyone for next year, they will receive a memo stating 30 days from the first day of school, when the report will be made.”

The count did not affect the district’s overall budget, which is based on a spring semester count. It did, however, determine how much money Westmont received.

O’Brien said the needs of the children are still being met, despite the shortfall. “There are adequate resources,” O’Brien said, referring to the after-school tutoring programs.

Cendejas also is satisfied with the services offered to students, and said many parents agree.

“The district did respond in a very positive manner,” Cendejas said. “I think in the long run we have expanded and improved programs here at Westmont, I would hope all parents would understand that.”

Parents are convinced the additional funds would not have been offered without their efforts, and they continue to worry about the progress of their children.

The language in the state code governing the funds for English learners is not precise, said Norm Gold, of the Department of Education’s Language Proficiency and Academic Accountability Unit. “What we would be looking for is, are all students getting the services they need this year?”

Since beginning their search, the parents also have learned that they are not alone in their concerns. During the 1998-99 school year, the state Department of Education conducted a review and found that the district had failed to provide an appropriate program to teach children English.

Deborah Escobedo, an attorney with Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy, a nonprofit group that monitors such programs, said the state also found that the district did not provide the students with proper access to basic academic subjects.

This year, Escobedo said, the district is being subjected to a second, more intensive review.

District spokesman Enrique Medina said the district has “taken every step” to bring the district into compliance.

Parents said they want to make sure that happens.

Said Santiago, the fifth-grade teacher, “If we want to change education we need to listen to our parents and what we owe to them is to [keep them] fully informed.”