SAN BENITO — Maria Chavez enjoyed learning about the many services available to her and other parents.
“I didn’t have any idea that they would provide children with these services,” said Chavez, who was attending the school district parent conference yesterday.
She had just finished a session with Cruz Ramos from Communities in Schools. Ramos gave one of many presentations at San Benito High School. Other presentations were made by Court Appointed Special Advocates, Southern Careers Institute and San Benito Housing Authority.
One session spoke to one of the main purposes of education, which is literacy. Raul Trevino, executive director of leadership and performance for the San Benito school district, presented that session.
“We are introducing the myON reading program to provide access to 6,000 online books from pre-K-through 8th grade,” Trevino said. “About 1,000 of them are in Spanish.”
MyON is a personalized collection of more than 5,700 digital books to read throughout the summer on computers, laptops and other devices.
Trevino said the program connects students to the Accelerated Reader. This is a computer reading program which provides books and magazines for children to read and then take quizzes to ensure comprehension.
“It’s fantastic,” said Pat Vela. “It’s been very informative. It’s bringing a lot of awareness, a lot of different people.”
Ramos, a site coordinator for CIS at Berta Cabazos Middle School, had just told attendees that the organization’s mission is to surround students with a community of support. She spoke about home visits to speak with parents about behavior and academics, and preparing students for college.
“It’s awesome,” she said as she finished up an English session. A Spanish version would begin shortly.
“We’ve had a good turnout,” she said. “We’re talking about what CIS is and able to give students. They need to know what CIS does.”
