Our district sent a team of 16 people (14 parents and 2 staff members) to the fourth annual "Statewide Summit for Bilingual Parents", a conference for members of bilingual parent advisory councils, which was held on Saturday, May 2, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Brook. There were over 650 conference attendees in total.

The conference (keynote addresses and workshops) focused on four important topics:

• PK-12 educational programs and services
• higher education opportunities for parents and students
• parental leadership and advocacy
• community outreach and family support

A raffle was held during the luncheon which included 3 winners. Raffle winners received a gift of $100.00 to start a college savings account for their child's education.

One of the 3 winners was a member of our team: Mrs. Alicia Garcia, a parent with four children at Westdale School!

She is pictured here (from L to R) with Robin Lisboa, Division Administrator of the English Language Learning Department at ISBE; Fred Crespo, State Representative of the 44th District; Alicia Garcia, our proud Westdale parent; Andres Lopez, Illinois State Treasurer's Office who presented the $100.00 certificate for the Illinois Bright Start College Savings Program.