September 5th marks the back-to-school day, and an event welcoming the new school year organized jointly by the Chinese Parents Association, District 25, and Flushing Library was held on September 3rd at Flushing Library to provide guidance for students and parents. The District 25 Superintendent in Flushing introduced the key focus areas of their work, which include establishing a solid reading foundation for students from kindergarten to 2nd grade, as well as ensuring the overall wellbeing of all students. Additionally, given that the Asian student population comprises more than half of the district, providing support for new immigrant students and families is one of their key priorities.
The Chinese Parents Association, established in 1986, holds a back-to-school event every fall before the start of the school year to inform parents and students about educational policies, important considerations for the new school year, and library resources for academic support. This event offers translation services in both Chinese and Spanish. Council Member Grace Meng attended the event, encouraging parents to make the most of this opportunity, emphasizing the importance of parents being well-informed to support the healthy growth of their children.
The President of the Chinese Parents Association, David Huang, and Board Chairperson, Judy Chu, emphasized the importance and necessity of maintaining good communication between parents and schools, as well as the fundamental need to understand what children require in their learning process. They pointed out that many immigrant children may feel hesitant to communicate with teachers, so parents need to ensure they understand their children’s feelings and needs on a daily basis to facilitate effective communication with teachers.
District 25 Superintendent, Michael Dantona, introduced the basic overview, mission, and key focus areas of the district. He mentioned that District 25 comprises 36 elementary and middle schools as well as pre-K centers, with Asian students making up over half of the student population at 53.2%, followed by Hispanic students at 32%, and African American students at 4%.
Dantona outlined the district’s key focus areas for the new school year, such as nurturing a strong reading foundation for kindergarten to 2nd-grade students, promoting early language development and reading abilities, implementing tools like FUNdations and Acadience, and promoting decodable text across all schools to help children establish foundational reading skills and language development. The goals include ensuring both physical and mental health for all students, fostering a sense of safety, empathy, focus, and providing high-quality academic experiences for all students, as well as offering support to new immigrant students (English language learners) and their families.
Regarding how parents can help enhance their child’s reading skills, Superintendent Dantona offered suggestions to parents, such as cultivating a reading habit for children by setting aside specific daily time for reading, selecting a comfortable and quiet environment for focused reading, encouraging discussions about characters and events in stories, being patient with the child’s progress even if it seems slow, and more.
Flushing Library Director, Yang Zeng, introduced various free resources available at the library to enhance academic performance, such as the after-school tutoring program Brainfuse, which offers real-time online tutoring in subjects like math, science, reading/writing, social studies from 2 pm to 11 pm daily, accessible online even after the library closes, with just a library card needed. Zeng emphasized that this service is a valuable resource provided by the library and hopes that more students will take full advantage of it. The library also provides databases for students to utilize for homework, paper writing, and research purposes.