Schools Work for Successful Assimilation

Transitioning to high school and "Building Stronger School Communities" was the focus of a panel discussion at Tuesday night's Carlmont High School PTSA meeting at the Belmont Library.

Panel members who aim to help students find success at Carlmont spoke about working with students from lower income families -- some who do not speak English as a first language.

The panel members highlighted many of the challenges these students face, and how to help them overcome obstacles.

Moderated by Carlmont High Principal Raul Zamora, panelists included Cesar Chavez Academy Principal Amika Guillame, Sister Trinitas Hernandez of Daughters of Charity and Director of East Palo Alto's Rosalie Rendu Center, Carlmont counselor for Students Offering Support Shelley Bustamonte, and Carlmont High Vice Principal Joni Gordon.

The population targeted by the panelists is mostly students from low-income families, some of whom come from feeder school Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto. These students are predominantly Hispanic, some whose first language is not English, or the language spoken at home by their families is not English.

"Ninety percent of our students are below the line of poverty," Guillame said.

Half of the students in Cesar Chavez Academy qualify as "homeless," which Guillame said may not mean that the student doesn't have a roof overhead, but refers to the family not living at an address where they pay rent or a mortgage.

A host of challenges are presented to these students from lack of food or proper nutrition, to anxiety over just not fitting in with the affluent student body at Carlmont.

It's a complicated matter and one that won't be solved with broad brushstrokes, panelists said. They are chipping away at matters by finding best practices and sharing them with one another, such as using the phone to get out important messages to parents instead of relying on websites or sending e-mails, because not all of the families have a computer at home, Guillame said.

The point is getting students and their families engaged and communicating, panelists said.

Hernandez used examples to illustrate that when you strip away income, language and other barriers, people can find genuine commonality, such as in struggling to maintain a relationship with a spouse or a child. And the progress the panelists said they would like to see is the rise in graduation rates among this target population.

"Every time I hear a student say, 'I'm going to be the first one in my family to graduate from high school,' I get goose bumps," Bustamonte said.