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Migrant school meets challenges
By Mary Nelson, Daily News

Maribell Molina and Maria Resendez are proud of former migrant students who have gone on to become teachers and more. One former student now has the determination to become a doctor. "We're very proud of them for their accomplishments," Resendez said.

Resendez herself is a medical lab technician and moved to Minnesota full time 19 years ago, but she and Molina know personally the lifestyle and hardships of migrant families in their journey to make a living.

Educating the children of migrant working families that travel as farm laborers in the northwest region is an important and challenging job. The goal of the Breckenridge migrant school program is to ensure all migrant students meet the challenging academic standards and graduate with a high school diploma.

Most migrant families coming to the Twin Towns are from Texas, where their children attended school on a regular basis. However, these children often miss the beginning and end of school as their families head north to earn a living. The local migrant school program picks up this slack.

In Breckenridge, the Migrant Head Start program offers development programming for infants (six months) to age five.

The program is responsive and appropriate to each child's and family's developmental, ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage and experience. It provides a wide range of services including medical and dental, Molina said, who has worked with the program for several years and has been coming to the Wahpeton and Breckenridge area since she was a child.

There are two nurses on staff who have worked with the migrant program for 20 years. Appletree Dental comes into the school, bringing it's own dental chairs and equipment, she said. Many of the services, including the medical and dental programs, are contracted.

Head Start has six teachers, several aids and 56 students. It can take up to 69 children and last year was maxed out with a waiting list, Molina said.

The program has more than 100 children registered, but they're not in school every day. Some days the older students are working in the field. The program is for students in kindergarten through age 21.

Students through eighth grade come during the day, but older students typically attend school twice weekly.

Students not only work standard curriculum, they also have a little fun while learning. Events earlier this year included construction of bug barns, nutrition classes, learning about fish and fishing, and the program also highlights a student of the week in every class.

Molina and Resendez say their jobs are to educate the students and get them out of the migrant mainstream. Parents come here to work, but their job is to keep the kids out of the fields, Resendez said.

"We're working to give them training for more permanent jobs. In one place," Molina said. Whatever credits they are lacking at their school back home is worked here.

Some of the families continue their migratory travels going to southern Minnesota, Michigan and even to Washington for cherry harvest.

The stereotyped belief is this is an all-expenses paid excursion for migrant families, but Molina is quick to point out it's not.

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