School board agrees to hire for interpretation services

NLMUSD board of education discuss approving the Interpretation Translations Trainings Agreement with the Orange County Department of Education during their Monday meeting. Photo by Vincent Medina

NORWALK — The Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District voted to pass the Interpretation Translations Trainings Agreement with the Orange County Superintendent of Schools (OCSS) during their board of education meeting Monday evening.

Under the agreement the OCSS will begin providing NLMUSD with interpretation and translation for various district needs, potentially covering individual education plans, parent-teacher conferences and other meetings requiring language services.

The district will manage and schedule these services as needed, paying for no more than $15,000 for their services.

Board member Robert Cancio raised concerns of fiscal responsibility and argued to utilize district community members as interpreters.

"I was also given the opportunity to meet folks in our district that do have the skill sets and have been tested through HR,” Cancio said. “Give them an opportunity to be able to practice their skill sets and then provide those services to our families and school sites.”

District superintendent John Lopez explained the district needs a translator or interpreter familiar with uncommon languages or communication styles in the event they are used during a meeting.

“If a specific language comes up, we may not have every translator on board. This agreement is for those languages that don’t come up too often to be able to use interpretation services,” Lopez said.

Cancio expressed exploring free services that are utilized by other districts, but the urgency of having a translator available for uncommon languages and specialized communication was noted by the board members including Chris Staples

“We all know, IEPs are special circumstances. When they come up, we need to immediately accommodate our parents in these situations,” Staples said.

The agreement passed with Karen Morrison, Norma Amezcua, Chris Staples and Narcis Brasov voting yes, and Jose Rios, Robert Cancio and Lorena Vidaurre voting no.