West Ottawa offers help to migrant families so students can continue education

By ROEL GARCIA

The Holland Sentinel

Ottawa County, MI — The Navarro family will leave for Texas in late November, and the family wants to make sure it has the proper paperwork when their children enter Texas schools.

The Navarros — who live at the Quincy Street camp and work for Zelenka Nurseries — and other migrant families listened to West Ottawa Public Schools administrators and counselors discuss topics like credits, transcripts and college at a special meeting Tuesday night.

Some migrant families will leave the district after the fall trimester finishes in November. First trimester exams end Nov. 21.

Jose Luis Navarro said he is glad the information is available to migrants.

“It’s difficult for my kids. Classes there aren’t the same as here. I went through that and that’s why I’m a dropout. I don’t want that for my kids,” said Navarro, 38.

“We all want the parents to know we’re here for them,” said Michelle Williams, the district’s English language learners and migrant programs director.

Navarro and his wife Elsa have three of their five children in high school — Stephanie, 16, Jose Luis Jr., 15, and Emily, 14.

Elsa Navarro said the meeting helped answer questions about college, something that’s in the near future for the family.

“(Stephanie) is the oldest and we haven’t gone through this before. They gave us a lot of information about college tonight,” said Elsa, 33.

Because of the issue of credits, the district works hard to make sure the students have the credits from the district, as well as documentation from earned credits they can transfer from other districts for graduation, Williams said.

Since some migrant students tend to leave after the first trimester, students are registered for the fall trimester and marked as returning students for the spring, Williams said.

“It helps us make sure they’re getting the credits they need,” she said.

Last week, some migrant families were unsure if they’d have a place to live at the Quincy Street and Pine Acres migrant camps since work was to be finished before the Nov. 21 exams.

However, Zelenka is allowing the migrant families with children in the school district to remain in their apartments through November, which gives the children a chance to finish their exams.

Jose Luis Navarro said work for him at Zelenka ends Nov. 7. They will stay at the camp until the children finish exams. They will go to Weslaco, Texas, for the winter trimester.

One of the Navarro children is a grade back because of problems in the past with credits.

“I don’t want that to happen again — that’s why this is important,” Jose Luis Navarro said of the meeting.