District EL coordinator announces scavenger-hunt to connect multilingual families with community resources

Linda Hoback, the district English learner coordinator for Lake Ridge New Tech Schools, announced a family-oriented scavenger-hunt event designed to help multilingual families learn where key community services are and to build classroom skills.

"It is Friday, November 22 at Calumet New Tech High School from 5 to 7:30," Hoback said, and asked attendees to enter through Door D. She described the activity as a "friendly competition" where students and parents will join teams, complete activities that practice reading and writing in English, and receive prizes.

Hoback framed the event as a practical way to connect families to local institutions such as the library, the police department and the hospital, and to remove barriers that can make registration and access to services intimidating. "We're doing a scavenger hunt," she said, "so they learn where things are in the community, know where to go when they need things." The program will offer grab-and-go food and guaranteed small prizes so "everybody will walk away with something." She said some donations — including sweatshirts and items from Walgreens — will be available, and the organizers plan to give away frozen turkeys for parents.

The scavenger hunt follows the EL program's regular work to assess and place students by English proficiency. Hoback explained the district uses a WIDA screener to assign students to levels 1 through 5, with level 1 for beginners who do not understand English and level 5 for students who have reached fluency and no longer need program services. "We determine that by giving a screener through WIDA," she said.

Hoback also described how the district supports parents who do not speak English. She said schools rely on bilingual staff, phone calls, mailed notices, translation devices and cross-building staff support to help families with registration and communications. Where formal interpreters are not available, Hoback said community members and bilingual students often step in to help new families navigate school procedures.

On enrollment trends, Hoback said the district has seen a recent increase in Spanish-speaking students and added that many of those families, in her observation, have come from Venezuela; she framed that as her belief rather than a confirmed fact. "We've had quite a bit from Venezuela," she said, while noting she could not be 100% certain about every family's origin.

Beyond logistics, Hoback and host Eric Johnson discussed classroom approaches: pairing new students with bilingual peers, using technology to translate in real time, and offering staff exercises to build empathy for students who are new to English. Hoback described a professional-development activity in which staff took lessons in an unfamiliar language to experience the confusion some EL students face and said the exercise helped staff better understand students' perspectives.

The program closes with a reminder of the event details and an encouragement to spread the word. Hoback corrected the pronunciation of her name during the wrap-up: "It's Hoback," she said.

The district did not announce additional costs, formal policy changes, or required approvals for the scavenger hunt. Questions about whether the event requires registration or the final list of sponsors were not specified in the program.