Mundelein High putting out some news releases in Spanish
Seeking to better connect with the area's sizable Spanish-speaking population, Mundelein High School officials have begun publishing some online news releases in that language.
The latest appeared on the school's website, d120.org, this week. It promoted a four-part series for Spanish-speaking parents about helping their kids succeed in high school.
“(It) will help reach a demographic that we may not have been able to reach before,” school board Vice President Vicky Kennedy said.
The Spanish announcements on the Web began during the 2009-10 school year, Mundelein High spokesman Ron Girard said. An unscientific survey of other Lake County schools' websites turned up no others that publish news releases in English and Spanish.
On the Mundelein High website, three releases have been published in Spanish since the effort launched, Girard said.
“The first was about a festival for Spanish-speaking parents, and the second was for a financial aid seminar with separate presentations for both English- and Spanish-speaking parents,” Girard said.
Two more Spanish-language announcements are planned, Girard said.
The vast majority of news releases appearing on the website remain in English. Releases are published in Spanish only if they concern events aimed at the Hispanic community, Girard said.
“We did a trial run with the first one to see if there might be any adverse reaction, and there was none,” Girard said. “So, we decided to use it when it seemed to make the most sense.”
All the other information on the website — including a calendar and sections about athletics, academic programs, and other subjects — is in English.
The Spanish releases are translated into that language by Assistant Principal James Ongtengco, who also serves as a district liaison with the Hispanic community when needed, and Mayra Laboy, an assistant to business manager Gary Lonquist.
“They sort of cross-check each other to be precise,” Girard said.
Kennedy believes it makes sense to publish news releases specifically aimed at Hispanic students or their families in Spanish.
She hopes the effort will encourage Hispanic parents to be more engaged in their students' campus life and education, a stated goal of the board and administration.
“If you're trying to reach those children (and their parents), it's nice to have a piece in their own language,” Kennedy said.
Mundelein High officials have taken other steps to make the website more accessible to people who speak other languages, too. With a few mouse clicks, the entire site can be translated into Spanish, Chinese or other languages.