“My team and I are the bridge between parents and the school,” said Belsy Moscosot, the outreach coordinator at McPolin Elementary, a Spanish dual immersion school in Park City School District.
As part of the district’s outreach program, Moscosot is part of a team which aims to provide Spanish-speaking and culturally sensitive staff for families in the area. The program also works as a referral service for minority or struggling students and families in the district, said Eric Esquivel, the director of family and community engagement for the Park City School District.
“We assist in coordinating with organizations to connect them with families for the purpose of meeting student’s needs. Both as it relates to academic and personal success,” said Moscosot.
Esquivel said, “We refer (families) to parenting classes, financial classes, anything that they need, we try to refer them and if we can’t find it locally, we start looking further out.”
Outreach at McPolin has various forms, said Moscosot, such as daily communication with families regarding student attendance, scheduling meetings between families and school staff, providing translation service, educating families on school and community programs and encouraging interest in student extracurriculars.
“Another large portion of our duties is to actively participate in meetings with parents regarding IEPs and 504s,” said Moscosot.
An IEP or Individualized Education Plan is a specific learning enrichment program geared for students to address areas of lower performance, and can include services like speech or occupational therapies. A 504 plan helps ensure students have equitable access to a learning environment.
For the 2022-23 school year, one third of students at McPolin Elementary identified as Latinx or Hispanic, 30.9%; while 59.3% identified as Caucasian and 8.8% identified as MultiRacial, according to the Park City School District website. In the same year, Park City High School, the only high school in the district, had 16.2% Hispanic students to 77.9% Caucasian.
Beyond specialized learning plans, native Spanish speakers at McPolin are supported by a school designed to elevate their language, part of a collection of schools dedicated to language learning.
“In today’s world, where increased conversations about globalization permeate discussions across all industry sectors, dual language immersion education is taking center stage,” says the Park City School District website.
There are four dual immersion schools in the Park City area: McPolin Elementary and Parley’s Park Elementary are the two Spanish dual immersion schools in the district, while Trailside Elementary and Jeremy Ranch Elementary offer dual immersion in French.
These schools are part of a state-supported program called Utah Dual Language Immersion, an elementary-school level education system in which students spend half their day learning with an English-speaking teacher and the other half with a teacher in a second language, the website says.
However, all students in these schools are still required to complete the state standardized testing in English, meaning native Spanish or French speakers are at a disadvantage compared to the native English speakers enrolled in the school when it comes to testing performance.
While McPolin is a dual immersion school, there are still plenty of roadblocks to the success of its Spanish-speaking students.
“I cannot speak for all of the students in the Park City School District, as I only work with elementary students, but in my school I think the biggest obstacle children face within the school is adapting to and learning the English language,” said Moscosot. “This is especially difficult for kids new to Park City.”
In her experience, however, this obstacle is quickly overcome.
“Students have a great capacity to adapt to and learn the language rather quickly,” she said.
While English learning is still a major focus at McPolin, celebration of Hispanic heritage is a year-round endeavor for the school’s educators.
At McPolin Elementary, half the staff is of Hispanic descent, said Moscosot.
“Many of our teachers (are) celebrating and recognizing their own Hispanic culture with their students each and every day,” she said. “From a young age, they are learning to recognize and respect the many different cultures and traditions that our Hispanic community has.”
For Hispanic Heritage Month this year, each Spanish class at McPolin Elementary is working to create bulletin boards about a Spanish-speaking country, displayed in the hallways.
“The posters include important history and culture of the country. … The purpose of this activity is for students to learn the importance of Hispanic culture and to understand the impact these cultures have had on American culture itself, whether it be through traditions, art, and even in American cuisine,” said Moscosot.
One of the biggest ways McPolin celebrates Latino culture in the community is through their Multicultural Festival, which happens annually in May.
“While this festival aims to celebrate and recognize many cultures, the biggest ones represented, due to our teachers themselves, are several Hispanic cultures,” said Moscosot.
“Leading up to this festival, teachers teach their students traditional dances of different origins and cultures; all while teaching their histories. … I have heard from several members of the Hispanic community that this actually makes them feel grateful and welcoming to all cultures. Like their cultures are proudly being represented through these students,” said Moscosot.
Through representation, students help continue the traditions of cultures around the world, cultures which make up the minority populations in the Wasatch Back.
Moscosot said, “For Hispanic students themselves, parents feel like this helps them celebrate and acknowledge their cultural identity.”