Find a neutral party who is bilingual and put this person on your executive board. Your meetings will probably run later with the translating, but if it allows more parents to be involved then do it! Get a computer translator for your word process package and translate handouts. You can have your agenda translated....Maybe have the one in Spanish be more detailed. Just a suggestion, but have someone proofread the translator as it sometimes translates too literally. As for the rest of your PTO stuff, know who is bilingual and willing to deal with those who only speak Spanish. When I have a parent who calls and I can't fully translate, I have two or three people I tell them to call for translation. It saves us both the frustration and they are still a part of the group. :cool:

Our school is very multi-cultural, but mostly half enlish speaking and half are spanish speaking. This is my first year as president and we are trying to find solutions to help bridge the communication gap - both at the meetings and with notices. To have a translator (spelling?) causes are meetings to go well beyond 2 hours and alot of business is not concluded because of lack of communication.
To make it worse, we have a parent who was the president before me and is very bitter for losing the last election. She is bilingual, but likes to come to the meetings and wants a translation (even though she understands english very well). She also likes to come to stir up trouble (she thinks that a parent-teacher club is a complaint department and that's how she ran the club).
I would love to hear any solutions or suggestions...thank you!