Marysville schools' next ELL family info night set for Jan. 26

MARYSVILLE — The Marysville School District will be conducting another information night for Spanish-speaking parents and parents of English Language Learner students on Jan. 26.

The MSD Board room at 4220 80th St. NE will serve as the site for the meeting from 6:30-8 p.m. According to Wendy Messarina, the ELL multilingual parent/community Spanish liaison for the school district, these ELL family info nights will be held every two months from now on.

Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring attended the last ELL family info night on Nov. 3, along with a number of other city officials, and praised the Marysville community's "wealth of diversity." While the last meeting also included appearances by representatives of organizations such as the Marysville Fire District and the Marysville Library, Messarina has invited one school counselor each from the elementary, middle and high school grade levels to this month's meeting.

Messarina explained that the goal of the ELL family info nights is to provide Spanish-speaking attendees with information about the services offered by the school district, as well as resources available to them in the community. The last ELL family info night gave parents a hands-on lesson on "Family Access" accounts, that allow them to check their children's grades, attendance records and discipline files on the Internet.

"It's like coming into the school, just online," said Messarina, who also distributed lists of phone numbers to report student absences for each of the schools, as well as Spanish- and Russian-language phone numbers for monthly-updated information on each of the schools. In addition, she distributed Spanish-language pamphlets on how parents can help safeguard their children against gangs, cyber-bullying and suicide.

"The reason I grouped the parents together by their schools was so they could make friends within their schools," Messarina said. "If you don't know anyone else who's a Spanish-speaking or ELL family, it can feel like you're the only one."

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