Parent School: A Community Action Plan Rooted in Cultural Strength

 

At my school, where the vast majority of our students come from immigrant, multilingual, and economically marginalized backgrounds, we know that family engagement cannot be just an event, it must be a relationship. That’s why I’ve designed a culturally sustaining community action plan called “Parent School: Leadership and Community Engagement.”

This project reimagines family involvement by creating a space where parents are not only welcomed, but valued as leaders, teachers, and decision-makers. Grounded in the principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy, this monthly program recognizes the cultural wealth that families bring and builds a structure where their voices shape the educational experience.

Why a Parent School?

Too often, immigrant families are left out of school decisions—not because they don’t care, but because traditional systems don’t reflect their languages, values, or realities. As Banks et al. (2025) remind us, when we affirm families' identities and build cultural bridges, we also boost academic success.

Montbello is the perfect place for this kind of initiative:

1. 78.5% of students are Latinx
2. 11.7% are Black or African American
3. Over 68% are English learners
4. More than 90% qualify as economically disadvantaged (DPS, 2023)

We need systems that reflect and uplift these communities.

Monthly Sessions, Centered on Families

The Parent School will meet once a month, with each session focused on a different topic:

September: Welcome & orientation

October: Navigating school systems and talking with teachers

November: Supporting learning at home

December: Celebrating family traditions and cultures

January: Mental health and stress

February: School participation and advocacy

March: Leadership and planning community projects

April: Families take the lead

May: Reflection and next steps

 Community Partnerships

This work won’t be done alone. Community partners like the Montbello Organizing Committee, Far Northeast Neighbors Inc., FreshLo Hub, and Struggle of Love Foundation will help facilitate cultural workshops, offer mental health support, and provide community space. Volunteer interpreters, teachers, and social workers will ensure families feel heard and supported.

Youth and Parent Leadership

A unique feature of this action plan is the involvement of students as junior interpreters and community storytellers. Families will also lead cultural workshops and participate in a newly formed Parent Council that helps shape school policy.

Teachers will receive training on how to include culturally informed family feedback in their practice, in line with Hong et al. (2025) who emphasize teacher-family solidarity as a pathway to equity.

Reimagining Engagement

This initiative doesn’t just aim to increase parent participation; it seeks to transform it. As Delouche et al. (2024) argue, immigrant families hold vast community cultural capital that schools often overlook. Parent School flips that narrative: families are not passive recipients of information, they are co-creators of school culture.

And as Douglass et al. (2019) have shown, when families gain leadership roles, they also gain status and confidence, which extends well beyond the school.

Final Thoughts

Parent School is a grassroots effort that grows from the strengths of our families, not in spite of them. It is a call to see immigrant parents not just as supporters of education, but as essential educators themselves.

This is what culturally sustaining leadership looks like: shared power, community voice, and equity in action.