Many parents of Garfield Elementary School students are more involved in their children's education thanks to common-sense methods employed by the school's new principal, Juan Baez.

Scheduling more informational meetings for parents, providing childcare when necessary and holding meetings in English and Spanish, Baez works to include as many Garfield parents as possible.

"I bring a big push for involving parents, and helping them get the tools to support the learning at home," he said.

Baez began working at Garfield this fall. He comes from the Portland School District, where he was a bilingual program administrator.

One of the first things Baez did at Garfield was to survey parents. He wanted to know their priorities for their children's education, the issues they are interested in, and how he could encourage their attendance at meetings.

When it comes to determining whether a parent can attend a school meeting, it's all about scheduling.

"It's a variety of time demands that parents have," Baez said. "It's either work or studying. Some parents are going to school themselves."

For parents' convenience, meetings at Garfield now are held both in the morning and the evening.

"I have found morning meetings work well for a lot of working people, of all socio-economic backgrounds," Baez said.

Because 40 percent of Garfield's students are of Hispanic origin and 33 percent still are learning English, such meetings are now held both in Spanish and English.

Childcare sometimes is provided for parents who come. But even when childcare is not available, parents are welcome to bring their kids.

Early Wednesday morning, 15 parents - a few with small children in tow - showed up at the Garfield library to learn ways to help their children with homework.

All of the parents who attended are Latino, and bilingual education assistant Patty Foulkes and literacy coach Marcianne Koetje conducted the meeting in Spanish.

Parents learned how children develop reading and writing skills, how to recognize their progress and help them move on to the next level. Distractions to learning, such as television and video games, were discussed, as well as ways to build vocabulary during everyday activities such as going to the store or making dinner.

Susana Gomez, who has a third-grader at Garfield, said this was the first time she had attended such a meeting, and she was fascinated by what she learned.

She plans to employ some of the reading and writing instruction techniques at home, she said.

Maria Luque explained that she is much more involved with her second-grader's education than when her older child - now a middle-schooler - went to Garfield. But Luque said she rarely heard about informational parent meetings before Baez came,

"It's much better this year," she said.

To get the word to parents about upcoming meetings, Baez and his staff at Garfield get creative. They hand out flyers, put sticky note reminders on the sleeves and shirts of the youngest students as they head home, and talk to parents as they pick up their children in the afternoon.

"I go out there and shake their hands," Baez said.

So far this year, Garfield has held informational meetings for parents about a range of topics, including helping children with academics, Garfield's dual-

language immersion program, discipline and behavior issues and state tests in reading, writing and math.

Parents' interests, as indicated in formal and informal surveys, dictate the choice of topics, and more meetings will be held on other requested topics, including personality traits and learning styles.

"We've had a lot of interest," Baez said. "We've had a lot of needs expressed."