Activist: PPS can't communicate with non-English speakers

PORTLAND, Ore. - A one woman undercover investigation found that despite requirements Portland schools communicate with non-English speaking parents, one-third didn’t even try.

Marta Guembes, a local Latina activist, called 85 Portland schools over a two-day period last month and pretended to only speak Spanish, according to a report in Willamette Week’s Wednesday edition.

She wanted to find out if Portland Public Schools had improved communication with non-English speaking parents after the state Department of Education found in 2009 the district wasn’t living up to state and federal laws.

But at about 30 of those schools the message she received, no matter how it was delivered was, “No Español.”

 A lot of times parents’ main contact with their child’s school is over the phone. In Portland there are 72 different languages spoken. No one expects the person on the other end of the line to speak all those languages, but Guembes said she didn’t expect some of the reactions when she called in Spanish.

 “A lot of times they’d just hang up on me,” Guembes said.

In a district where 10 percent of parents don’t speak English, Guembes said not one school seemed to follow a protocol.

In the Willamette Week report, Guembes gave several examples of the different reactions people had who answered the phone.

At Rosa Parks Elementary, the school pulled an 8-year-old student from class to speak with her. In another case, at West Sylvan Middle School, Guembes was transferred to a cafeteria employee who couldn’t talk to her until after breakfast was served.

“They have the technology; they have the people; they just need to make people accountable to not hang up on parents – not to be rude, not to laugh, not to have 8-year-old students interpreting, or parents,” she said.

Portland Public Schools spokesman, Matt Shelby, said, “There may be times, depending on the school or the situation, where there may not be someone readily available to speak with them.”

He said each school can’t serve every language, but new telephone technology will soon help connect parents to the district.

Federal law requires that schools take steps to provide a way to communicate with non-English speaking parents. School districts get money for that purpose but it is money that can be yanked if the districts don’t use it to facilitate better ways to communicate with non-English parents.

“We’re talking about respect,” Guembes said. “We’re talking about working with the parents for the best services for our children, for the students. They’re our future no matter what color you are or what background or what language you speak.”

According to Willamette Week, Portland Public Schools lost $600,000 last year for not sending paperwork to parents in their native languages. It has since gotten that money back after improvements which included providing interpreters at meetings.

Guembes said she hopes training and accountability at the school level are next.

• To read Willamette Week's story and to listen to Guembes' recordings of conversations with people at the schools: Click here.