Every new facility gets a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Today, they might as well have been cutting through red tape instead of a yellow ribbon when Broward County Public Schools inaugurated its new International Welcome Center at Pines Lakes Elementary School.
It’s designed to streamline everything for immigrant families trying to adjust to a new country and new customs, a new language and a new education system.
“Imagine coming to a country and trying to navigate getting your children to school, trying to find a place to live, figuring out the transportation, work, so forth and so on," said superintendent Dr. Peter Licata. "We’re doing ourselves a service by providing for the parents who can then provide for their children."
Victoria Saldala, who heads the district’s bilingual education department, said their goal and vision are to help families navigate the school system.
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“If they need help with registration and placement, how to log on to some of our school district Canvas applications, as well as just providing them resources, we have backpacks, free materials that we provide to families who are new and may be unable to buy those materials for their child,” Saldala said.
Broward County Public Schools currently has 32,000 students in the ESOL program, which means English for speakers of other languages. Katheryne Diaz graduated from the program as a student at South Broward High School and remembers the experience vividly.
“Going through that process of not having people you know, speak your language, feeling lost, going into a classroom and you can’t really communicate, it’s a big challenge that a lot of kids go through in Broward County Public Schools,” Diaz said.
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“I remember when I arrived to the country, my parents didn’t know what to do, they didn’t have any guide to follow, so having a center like this will help every family that immigrates to the United States,” said another ESOL graduate, Isabella Vidia.
The district is already planning to expand the welcome center concept to the north end of the county. The demand is undeniable.
“They are our students, they’re not somebody else’s, they’re our students,” Licata said.
