So is curious the word of the day? Whether this is or is not a claim with valid merit, I can say (as a black person who went thru Wissahickon school district) that the above complaint pales in comparison to the discrimination that I received, as well as viewed going through the school system. I wish I had the knowledge as well as support needed to stand up for myself as well as make them accountable for some of the teachers that were and most likely still are employed. I firmly believe in karma so I hold no grudges. But If I had a child they most definitely NEVER attend school within this district!

Wow, what a bunch of victacrats. WSD is one of the most inclusive districts in the region, bending over backwards to make "multi-culturalism" a prominent part of the curriculum, even to the point of slighting the significance of European settlement. My (immigrant) grandparents came to this country and COULDN'T WAIT to learn the language and become American. Multi-culturalism has changed all of that.

English is the official language of the United States of America. Learn it!

Never heard of such a thing. Apparently these parents/guardians do not listen to their children. I am sure they have the ability to converse and understand English, and communicate with others. How can they attend a school, learn English, then not apply what they have learned to everyday tasks? Not everything at a Walmart or McDonalds is in two languages. I don't see them being sued for not telling you what comes on a hamburger, or for what is not in aisle 3. This has nothing to do with race, it has to do with ignorance. When immigrants enter an area they must take the initiative to learn the culture and language of others. There are some of us who want others to learn about our cultures, but really we should be learning about theirs too!

The entirety of my comments from the Ambler Gazette is shown below. The above excerpts don't make sense by themselves.

"Mattison Avenue parent Christine Delaurentis said during the meeting in reply to the district’s official statement that Wolpert was “not forthcoming with the information” he was providing.

“The Hispanic community in Ambler had no knowledge about the possible closure of Mattison, until a bilingual parent met with them on the playground after school in September,” she said.

She said the community repeatedly made requests for documents to be translated into Spanish before the district agreed to translate them. She said the only reason a translator was at the first hearing in October was because of repeated requests.

“And in fact, the translator was told to only translate for parents who wanted to speak to the board,” she said. “They were not allowed to translate the rest of the hearing for those parents.”

She said bilingual parents who offered to translate were told they were not allowed to translate because the district translator was already there.

“Those poor parents sat there for that entire two-hour hearing and had no idea what was going on, because they were not allowed to know” she said. “Don’t lie to the people of this district.”

Thank you for bringing this important issue to the public.

Both the article and the school districts' response fail to mention that the district received Title I and Title III federal funding for translation and interpretation services that was spent without providing the services. At the WSD, the burden of non-English communication falls on the Home & School Association at the individual school level and paid for by the supporters of the association. The district has to explain what happened with the spent funds.

I am baffled as to how WSD can be described as an "inclusive" district that "bends over backwards" to embrace multi-culturalism when they neither recognize or celebrate black history month. Their actions speak for themselves, quite loudly, if one has the ability to listen objectively, of course.

Who was there to translate for the parents during the first marking period conferences, as well as back to school night? Maybe they should have realized the problem earlier in the year. As far as Black History Month, Wissahickon is one of the few that gives students off an extra day for MLK day.

Donna, exactly the point. They have failed miserably, for quite some time. It's unfortunate we didn't realize just how bad things were until we started really paying attention. And giving our students a day off is in no way a substitute for educating them.

When the district accepted the funding many years ago, solutions should have been put into place district wide.

This is part of the whole opening of Pandora's box that has occurred and is still happening with the current administration and board.

No one really pays complete attention to how things are running until a discovery of 'something not being right'.

There is a long road ahead for the current appointed and elected leaders in the district as a lot of folks are now paying microscopic attention to school district matters which translates to improvements district-wide in the long run.

Not one parent or guardian at Mattison Avenue Elem. ever received communication that our school was possibly closing after the announcement was made at a board meeting in June 2012. A letter home to each household announcing the closure and the next steps should have immediately followed this announcement. This was a major announcement that has a huge impact on the lives of our children and their education and it definitely warranted a letter directly from the administration.

As a WSD taxpayer,I believe the WSD Board is Federally guilty as charged of intentional ,or unintentional racism, by closing Mattison Avenue School. By depriving the poverty Black and Latino population of Ambler, with no cars, who have no ability to get to Shady Grove Elementary School, of routine interaction with all levels of WSD staff, the effect is intensely, even if through not thinking of it, racist and the Federal Suit,to my taxpayer's dismay, is correct.
Mattison Elementary School must be restored and made properly functional for its' present and coming population and all the racially insensitive Board members who voted to close Mattison, and the Administrators behind them, need to go.
The closure is effective "Redlining", driving minorities out of Ambler to get into more humane School Districts . As such, it is against existing State and Federal Law.
Cave in on this School Board or you will be bankrupted by lawsuits and ,thus, prevented from even renovating your Middle-High School, let alone building new Upper Dublin clones.

Learn English.

My wife is a public school teacher in montco and our native citizens can barely speak and write English. And we're supposed to focus on an alternative language? In a perfect world we would all speak every language spoken in the world, but human beings are currently incapable or unwilling to do so. To say that we are "close-minded" because we want citizens of the USA to speak English is absurd. We need our citizens, regardless where they're from, to speak English and read/write in English. LEARN IT immigrants and natural citizens!

To Brian:
It is 3 miles,via Google search, for where most of the Ambler Latino parents live, to walk on busy dangerous roads with no sidewalks, to pick up a Shady Grove grade school child who gets sick at school or when a parent-staff conference is called for .This unintentionally will discourage parental involvement and encourage them to locate elsewhere. Remember, the Latinos have no cars and do not know how to drive.
Mattison was also the site where Head Start gave Latino pre-schoolers a modicum of English,so they can begin to translate for their parents. That will be abolished also, thanks to our School Board's vote, blocking this important first step in English language assimilation.

To Ken Po:
I believe racism and redlining can be unintentional.
I was giving the School Board the benefit of the doubt in regard to the harm their vote caused to minority Latino and Black family structures barely hanging on,in Ambler.
I hope the Board truly intended noble purposes and were just ignorant of what real poverty and immigrant experiences are like for these fragile "least of these", the ones who mow lawns and are aides in nursing homes,etc.
I suspect most of the Caucasians attending Mattison Avenue have access to a car. The upper-class Board forgetting that fact is where the insenitivity and unawareness exists in regard to the poverty population in Ambler,showing their ignoring, ignorance and/or neglect in working around fundamental poverty realities.

Are we discussing race, or are we discussing rights. Everyone is entitled to a good public education. We elect the school board, and we have a vote as far as who will become governor. If you are not satisfied with the qualities of public education, there are more choices than ever, private, cyber, charter. It is like "Farming", if you are going to talk bad about it, don't do it with your mouth full"! You too can run for a school board position, but you didn't. Next time vote for someone who will make a change in your favor. There are even citizens who will pick you up at your house if you do not have a car!

Last time I checked the only people who drove needy parents to and from Shady Grove for conferences and school meetings were myself and another volunteer parent. The volunteer list comes out at every conference interval. I drove white people, grandmothers of both colors, Spanish speaking people and black people.

These comments prove that racism is not restricted to Western Europeans.

I suppose that we have entered the world of entitlements that will transcend every aspect of life as we know it. Translation for every language for every immigrant that comes to our shores, legally or otherwise. While you are at, provide transportation for their every need, even though they came here to embrace the American dream...or did they? Just for the record, Mattison only goes to the third grade, so following that, how would any of these parents go to parent conferences? Maybe we should build a middle school and high school in the neighborhood to accommodate those that don't have cars!

Again, little kids; not ideology or republican or democrat; or "entitled", little tiny kids who need help. Mattison's principal isn't the person who translated - it was a bi-lingual parent. It happened at back to school night in September on the playground. The families only knew what their neighbors told them, because the announcement was never sent home or publicized and it was made at a school board meeting after the last day of school was over. The only people who even knew it was to be announced were the people who regularly check the school board agenda which was posted at 2 PM on the last day of school which ended at 10:30 AM. If you did not attend the meeting - anything you heard was by word of mouth.Yes, it was the community who told the families; not anyone from the school district. This is the fear: when you take the community school away, who will help? We know some of the families whose children attend Mattison need help; and we as a community help them. The school will now close, the need is still there, the community ties will be severed.To this point - before the press started making everyone aware; the only people who helped were community members; and that was sufficient. What happens when you sever that tie? Will you all who have such strong opinions volunteer to help? Will you follow these kids to two different schools, or three different schools? I know I will.

Really....with all the information that comes home from Mattison in spanish!!!! Lawsuit is frivilous and non-meritorious!

Yesterday I learned of what I believe is the first Latino family with little kids planning to leave Ambler,since the redlining force-out caused by the Board's closure of Mattison Avenue.They will break up their extended family support in Ambler and relocate to Flourtown and its' schools because that grade school will be within walking distance for the non-driving mother and where the mother works. Government school boards forcing poverty minorities to relocate like this is racially discriminatory .Is WSD in Alabama in the 50's?

Let us know where the house is located. People are really interested in Whitpain/Ambler area because of the schools and demographics.
Crime level must not be high enough up here. They will now be closer to Philly, leaving the amateurs and seeking the professionals

Adios. Via con dios!!