Driving to class one June day, Conran passed Countryside Fellowship Church in Savage, where she has prayed with parents. Then she passed two apartment complexes, where she has buzzed many of their doorbells.
“And do you see this hill in front of us?” Conran asked. “That’s where many of them walk to get to work.”
The hill leads to Coastal Sunbelt Produce, a fruit and vegetable distributor. This year, the company and Bollman Bridge Elementary School forged a learning partnership. Conran, who teaches English for speakers of other languages at the school in Jessup, does the same for the company at lunchtime.
Most of the refugees work on assembly lines in a building cooled to temperatures in the 40s. Wearing skull caps and heavy jackets, they chop, package and seal fruit.
Conran walked into the cafeteria, filled with the aroma of curry dishes. About two dozen Burmese workers, mostly parents, were huddled in small groups around an English speaker, who was practicing with them how to call in sick for work.
Conran’s teaching partner hugged her. When the lessons started in May, the partner spoke no English.
“What is your name?” Conran asked.
“My name is Fam Chua.”
“What is your job?”
Chua furrowed her eyebrows, then said: “I . . . make . . . salsa.”
Jean West Lewis, a community outreach specialist for the Howard school system, said there can be hurdles to connecting with refugee parents. Based on experience in their homeland, the parents might distrust authorities. Their ignorance of American customs might lead them to take a hands-off approach to their children’s education.
“It used to be that we would expect the parent to come to school to seek help,” West Lewis said. “This is a new, novel approach by going to their workplace and making it easy for parents to learn about us and how to work with us.”
In 2007, West Lewis told Bollman Bridge parents to get ready: A group of Burmese refugees was coming to their 600-student school from an Asian country, also known as Myanmar, that has been in turmoil under a repressive military regime.
That year, about 14,000 Burmese refugees were admitted to the United States. This year, the State Department is expecting 18,500, sprinkled throughout the country, from Milwaukee to Louisville to Howard and other suburbs of Washington.
In the past four years, school data show, Howard schools have registered 163 Burmese refugee children.
In fall 2007, Conran’s English class at the school jumped from about 20 students — mostly Spanish speakers — to 70. Many of the newcomers spoke the languages of Burma, such as Burmese, Zophei and Chin.
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