Spanish-speaking parents hold protest after Oak Grove Union school board votes to cut translator

The Oak Grove Union School District’s only bilingual liaison provides one-on-one support to Spanish-speaking parents, helping them fill out forms, translating correspondence and communicating with teachers on their behalf.

Ana Castillo Williams’s presence has become invaluable to parents who only speak Spanish. Now, those parents feel they are at a loss. Last week, Oak Grove trustees announced she would be let go at the end of the school year in the face of dire budget cuts.

Castillo Williams is just one of seven staff members who will be let go at the end of the school year. The layoffs are paired with a slew of program cuts. The financial standing of the small district — it has 800 students — plummeted when their reserves dipped below the state’s required 3%.

The decision comes as districts of all sizes are making staff reductions. With the expiration of one-time COVID funds and lower-than-expected inflation adjustments and state revenues being funneled to school districts next year, school boards have had to make tough decisions about what to cut.

On Friday, a small but mighty group of concerned parents gathered outside Willowside Middle School and marched directly to the district office next door to make sure their voices were heard.

The parents, many of whom only speak Spanish, felt firing the district’s only translator will leave their families without a way to communicate with their children’s schools.

"There are bilingual teachers, but the person who speaks with us is the only one,“ said parent Sandra Cruz, referring to Castillo Williams.

The part-time position, at 15 hours a week, costs the district $24,000 annually.

Cutting the translator, alongside teaching assistants, an early childhood educator, a preschool site director and various unfilled positions will save the district $263,000 per year.

The district is on spring break this week, and Castillo Williams did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

Castillo Williams not only facilitates conversations with parents, Cruz said, but also translates correspondence from the school, helps parents fill out forms, and organizes events that support the 28% of Hispanic families in the district who may need the translation help.

"There are parents who don't speak English. A lot,“ Cruz said, in Spanish. ”And they're just talking to her. She organizes Day of the Dead, it's a big thing at this school.“

She noted that while the translator is from Guatemala, and does not celebrate the holiday, she has embraced the Mexican culture in the event planning, knowing that many of the families are of Mexican descent.

“She’s with us and with our culture,” Cruz said.

Castillo Williams was described as a bridge between Oak Grove schools and the community, and parents on Friday felt the district did not understand the negative repercussions by taking their translator away.

Simply, translating emails in Spanish is not enough.

“A lot of families don’t have access to the internet, or they might not have a computer for example,” said Guadalupe Lazaro, a parent of two in the Oak Grove District. “Everything, they don’t know about and aren’t informed about, unless through Ana.”

Lazaro, who speaks English, helped a group of parents put together letters outlining the impact the bilingual liaison had on their students to read at the March 13 board meeting, where the board took action on the staff cuts.

“They have rights,” Lazaro said. “Their children are here and I think they should be heard.”

Some of the parents spoke to the opportunities their children would have otherwise would have missed out on, like enrichment classes and summer programs. Others highlighted the way the translator has created spaces where their culture can be celebrated.

Oak Grove Board President Lesley Jones spoke about their presence at that meeting, and about the district’s qualified status.

She said trustees had to make such significant cuts to ensure they won’t remain in deficit spending, and that the belt-tightening is expected to continue for the next three years.

The decision to cut staff had to be made before the state’s required March 15 deadline to notify personnel of staff cuts, but Jones said the board has plans to revisit their decision once the Gov. Gavin Newsom releases his final state budget report.

Hearing from the community members who spoke at the board meeting shined a light on the importance of the position for Jones. She plans to prioritize bringing back the translator if the governor’s budget improves.

“I agreed with the people speaking (on March 13) that it seemed to me like they got a lot more value out of this person's position than $24,000, and that it would have a big negative impact on their lives in the community,” Jones said. “It made me more aware of how valuable it was to them, and that they really didn't like the alternatives that we were proposing.”

The position will not be replaced, but trustees said they would ramp up the availability of the district’s 10 bilingual staff — including teachers, administrators and groundskeepers — to communicate with Spanish-speaking parents and ensure that all materials are translated in Spanish.

“Oak Grove is celebrated for its enrichment of the arts, its celebration of diversity … Where’s the celebration of diversity?” Lazaro said. “This is the only thing we have left. (The district) has taken everything away.”

Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. Reach her at Adriana.Gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.