CLEARLAKE— Konocti Unified School District board member Zabdy Neria presented her current projects and goals for KUSD this Thursday at the Judge’s Breakfast in Clearlake. She focused her discussion on the continued development of cultural and language education as well as how best to support a generation of working parents and their children.
Neria moved from Vallejo to Lower Lake when she was young, graduating from Lower Lake High School and obtaining her associates in Behavioral Sciences at the Woodland Community College Lake County Campus continuing on to get her Bachelors from Marymount University in Lucerne. She shared “It really helped, for me, to see opportunity, kind of like a big fish small pond situation.” Currently Neria sits on the KUSD board of trustees while also volunteering for the Clearlake Rotary Club as President-Elect and working as a children’s therapist in local schools. She was also recently featured in an article in the Press Democrat highlighting Neria and five other Latina women who honor the people who have mentored them and supported them along their personal journeys.
KUSD is composed of five schools including elementary, middle, and high schools. With her background in child therapy, Neria discussed the tracking of a students’ progress, not just their academic and testing scores but their mental health as well. A large part of this is connecting with students on their level, and in their language.
According to Neria “Statistics show that a large majority of our kids, of our families, they are of Hispanic background.” Language barriers can create obstacles for a child’s educational development if they are not given the necessary resources and Neria believes that Lake County is breaking those barriers through various local projects including one at the Middletown Art Center which, when complete, will offer cultural exhibits and language workshops that classes can attend during field trips, as well as a program through the Lake County Office of Education that offers students and their families full mental health treatment, covering the cost for those in need with the help of a grant. As a result of these programs, Neria has hope for the future sharing “Lake County is moving in a positive direction.”
The issues faced in fully reaching their full potential lies in staffing, as Neria shared the district is still trying to fill bilingual and mental health positions although they have developed a parent liaison program with six bilingual volunteers. District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier compared the U.S. to European countries who teach foreign languages in schools beginning at a much younger age, perhaps 9, asking what current steps are being taken to teach a foreign language at an earlier age in public schools which don’t begin a foreign language curriculum until middle school. In response Neria mentioned that the question usually comes to her in the opposite form, as they have a lot of English learning students and that research shows that through integration, kids learn most efficiently. Sabatier said, “If they can do it there, we can do it here.” KUSD Superintendent Becky Solato added that the district is actively working on offering Spanish and possibly other languages at the new middle school Obsidian Middle School beginning in sixth grade.
Lake County School Superintendent Brock Faulkenberg asked how best to support Neria and her generation in becoming the next leaders of our community. Neria responded saying “flexibility is what is needed the most” making the point that she has had to alter the schedules of meetings for her volunteering commitments as they do not fit into the schedule of a working parent. She believes that by normalizing the high demands faced by parents and women specifically, that we as a society will open up opportunities for those who currently feel too much pressure just surviving to participate in our community on a deeper level. Sabatier added that more support is needed not just for Neria but also the younger generations still attending school. He shared “If we tell them they suck then they’re not going to want to step up.” hoping to help change the rhetoric around how others perceive and communicate with kids.
The Judge’s Breakfast is held every Thursday at 7 a.m. at the Masonic Lodge in Clearlake temporarily while the Senior Center undergoes repairs. Next week’s guest is Assemblywoman Cecelia Aguilar Curry.
