When the pandemic forced us to move to remote learning in March, some principals worried that their Latino families would be at a disadvantage due to language barriers. As a Latina, I know Latino parents tend not to embrace email and print. They prefer tools like WhatsApp and videoconferences. Latinos also respond well to phone calls and other more direct forms of communication. With that understanding, I helped school principals develop new strategies to communicate.
Helen Persing, principal at Saint John Paul II Regional School in Stratford, moved quickly to find better ways to reach Latino families. “Sometimes you choose a line of communication and it does not work for certain families. I understand that. I am always open to other suggestions, especially when it comes to our Latino families,” she said.
Persing said Zoom and WhatsApp have worked well for her. “I love when I post something on WhatsApp and I get 10 or 15 ‘Gracias’ after a few minutes of posting it, and then I am like ‘Yes! They are reading it, they are reading it!’ That makes me feel good.”
The school also started to schedule regular Zoom meetings in Spanish, in which I would serve as a translator. Some Latino parents were familiar with Zoom but it was new for many. These meetings helped Latino parents cope with remote learning and gave Persing the opportunity to connect with families. She saw an increase in participation from parents who typically did not attend in-person meetings.
“I really liked the Zoom meetings. … I thought they were fun, and I think [parents] thought they were fun too. I want to continue those,” said Persing.
Elizabeth Martino, principal at Our Lady of Hope Regional School in Blackwood, faced similar communication challenges with Latino families during remote learning. “Email was really our primary communication tool. I shifted from email to making phone calls and also texting families and found that to be much more effective,” she said. Like Persing, Martino found WhatsApp worked well with Latino families — a good reminder that not all families communicate the same way.
Martino also developed a strategy to help students who needed more support. Some of those students were Latino. “I [asked] our Spanish teacher to help me translate. She helped me call individual families to share that information. I found that to be a very important piece,” she said.
These new efforts in communication have led Martino to welcome a Latino parent to the school’s PTA to help her figure out the best ways to address the needs of the Latino community. “It is important to go beyond the idea that the Spanish teachers are the only ones that can support our Spanish speaking families. Finding parents who can help is a great strategy,” said Martino.
Other principals also expressed the benefits of having bilingual people in their school community. Carol Spina, principal at Our Lady Star of the Sea Regional School in Atlantic City, said she was happy to have a bilingual staff member to help her translate and make phone calls to families. At Bishop Schad Regional School in Vineland, advancement director Robin DiPatri highlighted the advantage of having a Hispanic principal at a school where a large percentage of the population is Hispanic. “It is easier to communicate having Sister Olga here. Latino families tend to go to her directly to get the information they need,” Robin said.
Connecting with Latino parents in a more personal way has given school principals and the Diocese of Camden a new perspective and understanding of Latino families’ communication preferences, and Latino parents are grateful for it. Laura Hernandez, a parent at Our Lady of Hope, said, “God has blessed us with all of you, especially for all the efforts to try to communicate with the Latino parents. You have been really trying to help us understand how the processes work.”
Andrés Arango, Hispanic Ministry Director for the diocese and a parent at Saint Mary’s School in Williamstown, was especially grateful to receive letters from Superintendent Dr. Bill Watson in Spanish. “Opening my mailbox and finding a letter from the superintendent explaining the policies and procedures has been reassuring and special,” he said.
The response on social media pages has been overwhelmingly positive from parents who have benefited from the information provided in their own language. It has been a joy for me to see how culturally responsive the schools are becoming every year to meet the needs of our Latino families. We have also been working to provide more communication resources in Spanish from the Office of Catholic Schools, and I am glad we are able to provide this service to our Latino community.
Many Latino families want a Catholic school education but don’t know how accessible it is for them. Understanding and breaking language barriers will enable us to reach more families and continue to help our Catholic schools to grow.
Marianela Nuñez is field consultant Latino enrollment, Diocese of Camden.
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