PARENT OUTREACH EFFORT COVERS FOUR LANGUAGES MEETING ORGANIZED TO HELP FAMILIES UNDERSTAND SCHOOLS.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

BURBANK - An outreach meeting with presentations in four languages will be held tonight at Joaquin Miller Elementary School to encourage parents to get more involved in their children's education.

The meeting is being organized with the help of the Burbank chapter of the Armenian National Committee, which wants to increase civic participation among Armenian-Americans. But the meeting is for all parents, and presentations will be held in English, Spanish, Armenian and Korean.

``Often our immigrant families, in particular, may feel uncertain with getting involved with the schools, and this can be for several reasons: Difficulty understanding the way in which public education in the U.S. works, because they feel separated by language barriers, or cultural differences sometimes,'' said school board member Paul Krekorian.

Thirty-five percent of the students in the Burbank Unified School District are Hispanic and 6 percent are Asian. The number of students of Armenian descent was unavailable from the school district.

Tonight's meeting is primarily for parents of students at Miller Elementary, the BUSD's largest elementary school, but organizers said parents with children in other district schools are welcome. The Burbank chapter of the ANC hopes to have other schools host similar meetings.

``From our perspective, we'd love to do this throughout the Burbank school district,'' said Nazan Armenian of the ANC.

The 90-minute meeting will provide parents with information on how the school district works, how they can get involved and make the most of their children's academic performance, the help available to them and how the district's program for English-learners works.

Miller Elementary has good turnout for parent-teacher interviews and back-to-school night, but lower turnout for PTA and school-site council meetings, said assistant principal Sandra Cavalheiro. Survey results from 176 Miller Elementary parents showed only 50 percent of them feel PTA meetings are worthwhile to improve communication between parents and the school.

The survey also found the language barrier is the main thing keeping Armenian-American parents from getting more involved, while for other parents child care and work conflicts presented challenges.

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

--The Burbank Unified School District will hold an outreach meeting from 6 to 7:30 tonight at Joaquin Miller Elementary School, 720 E. Providencia Ave.

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IF YOU GO (see text)