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Gwinnett Daily Post WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016
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Vol. 46, No. 105
Libraries streamline schedules Board of trustees also approves new hours
TRANSLATION NATION
By Curt Yeomans curt.yeomans@gwinnettdailypost.com
The guessing game of trying to figure out when a library in Gwinnett County will be open is going to be a little easier to figure out starting later this spring. The Gwinnett County Public Library Board of Trustees approved a new, consolidated schedule on Monday that will result in seven more hours of operation. The changes made pertain to the hours each library is open on weekdays and do not affect hours on Charles Saturdays and Sundays. Pace The county’s 15 libraries currently operate on a complicated set of two schedules for weekdays that have them opening at 10 a.m. on some days, and at noon on others. In other words, a resident could visit their library in the morning on a Tuesday, then have to wait until the afternoon on Wednesday — only to be able to visit in the morning again on Thursday. Starting May 16, all libraries will be open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
See LIBRARY, Page 8A
COMPREHENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN
Top left, Meadowcreek High School students, from left, Jessica Mendoza, president of Translation Nation, and Susan Morel lead a Jeopardy game last week after showing fellow students adjusting to a new school how to get involved with clubs and activities around Meadowcreek. Top right, Meadowcreek students, from left, Alondra Arteaga, Yesenia Hernandez, secretary of Translation Nation, Bianca Ramos and Karen Angel Raymundo, vice president of Translation Nation, describe clubs and activities at Meadowcreek for students in the school’s English for Speakers of Other Languages program. Right, Meadowcreek students listen to Translation Nation presentation about clubs and activities around Meadowcreek. (Staff Photos Keith Farner)
Meadowcreek High develops interpreter program By Keith Farner
and president of the program. “I feel like us as peers, we can Visit gwinnettdailypost.com relate with (other students) and for a photo gallery. get along better with them than, NORCROSS — When Jesfor example, a teacher and stusica Mendoza arrived at Mead- in the English for Speakers dent, maybe they wouldn’t feel owcreek High School, she was of Other Languages program, as comfortable. So us being eager to continue working with the most in Gwinnett County students are able to help them, people who speak a foreign Public Schools. So when and the relationship is better.” language. Mendoza met with Edwards, In her work as a counselor, In middle school, Mendoza now a counselor, a blossoming Edwards saw parents who was involved in an interpretaprogram was born. couldn’t speak English needing tion club, and she looked for Because they each saw a an interpreter for parent-teacher something similar at Meadneed, they joined forces to start conferences and other comowcreek. Initially, she came the first interpreter program munications with the school up empty, until a meeting with at Meadowcreek, now called community. Because Edwards then-intern Shaleah Edwards. Translation Nation. The could speak Spanish, she filled Meadowcreek, after all, is school also offers a mentoring a need at a school that previamong the most diverse schools program for students who have ously only had five or six staff in Gwinnett County Public come to America from other members who were bilingual. Schools and has about 580 stu- countries. “There was this barrier dents out of its overall enroll“I feel like it was a necessibetween school communication ment of 3,400 students enrolled ty,” said Mendoza, now a senior and the parents,” said Edwards, MORE ONLINE
keith.farner @gwinnettdailypost.com
By Curt Yeomans curt.yeomans@gwinnettdailypost.com
who majored in Spanish in college and studied abroad in Spain and Costa Rica. “They were so excited that I spoke Spanish as a counselor. A lot of our students spoke Spanish, so why not use these students who already have this skill, (and) train them?” That helped launch the program in early 2014, and there are now 17 students in the Translation Nation interpreter program, while 15 other students are mentored for cultural adjustments and encouraged to get involved in the school community with help on the academic, social and emotional transition. Recently, the newly trained
Becca Parker wants something done about Ga. Highway 20. She said gave up a teaching job at Central Gwinnett High School that paid her $60,000 a year because of the severe early morning traffic congestion on that road between her home behind the Mall of Georgia in Buford and Lawrenceville. She talked about her frustrations with the road at the Bogan Park Community Center on Tuesday night during the first of six public input meetings the county is holding as part of the update of its Comprehensive Transportation Plan. “It was taking me over an hour to commute from Buford to Lawrenceville for a job that started at 6:45 a.m.,” Parker said. “I was having to leave home around 5:30 a.m. to get to work on time.”
See PROGRAM, Page 8A
See MEETING, Page 2A
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