‘Tireless advocate’: How Marisol Muhs continues to support Sheboygan’s Spanish-speaking families at Sheridan Elementary

SHEBOYGAN — This Sheridan Elementary School staff member bridges connections between Spanish-speaking homes, school and the community.

Marisol Muhs helps cultivate support for families and students as the family liaison and 21st Century Community Learning Center coordinator.

Sheridan is the only elementary school in Sheboygan County to offer a dual language program, founded in 2005. It is a choice-in school, and the program extends from the Early Learning Center's 4K level to Horace Mann Middle School. Instruction is taught evenly in English and Spanish. English-speaking students must enter the program in kindergarten or first grade, because of language acquisition, and Spanish-speaking students can enter at any grade level.

Muhs started with Sheboygan Area School District 24 years ago, first serving as a bilingual educational assistant for 14 years. In addition to welcoming new families to Sheridan and the community as the family liaison, she helps them find resources, like health care, job interviews and interpretation services.

Families may struggle with a host of challenges, like obtaining housing, affordable day care and basic necessities like food and clothing.

"Going through that process and coming to any country, they're going to start from zero,” Muhs said.

Though she didn’t have exactly the same experience as some of the families she supports, Muhs can relate to facing a language barrier in a new place. She moved to Kiel from Costa Rica 26 years ago.

Muhs said she loved the area with its welcoming community and “long, sunny days” in summer. She also felt isolated by the different language and customs, missing her family and roots.

“The warm ‘Pura Vida’ (Pure Life) culture from Costa Rica was thousands of miles away,” Muhs said.

She began taking English language lessons at Lakeshore Technical College, where she connected with other Spanish speakers.

When families come to Sheridan, Muhs said they often feel more “at home" because they can talk with other Spanish speakers. About 50% of the school staff speaks Spanish.

Older siblings often went with Ruth Ruiz, a Sheboygan native and Sheridan parent, to her parent-teacher conferences in grade school because of the language barrier between her parents and staff.

Ruiz speaks Spanish, but didn’t learn it formally. She enrolled her two daughters at Sheridan because she wants them to connect with the culture and traditions of their extended family in Mexico, largely shared through language.

Ruiz sees Muhs as role model and source of support for her daughters.

“They can look up to somebody, and in a position like that. Somebody that looks like them, somebody that can connect with their language as well,” Ruiz said. “There's some of these unsaid things that when you see somebody that looks like you, we can get a little bit more comfortable.”

The last family liaison in Sheboygan schools

Muhs is the last family liaison at a SASD school, according to a district spokesperson.

Sheridan is among several SASD schools, like Longfellow and James Madison elementary schools, supported by Title I funds, which are federal funds allocated for schools serving a high population of low-income students.

There used to be two liaisons in the district, but other Title I schools allocated funds toward other means to support student learning, according to the district spokesperson.

Sheridan reduced the family liaison role by 50% but decided to keep it because of Sheridan’s large bilingual community.

"We have held on to her (Marisol) in that position because it's been such a beneficial, important, (and) invaluable resource to our families,” Sheridan Elementary School Principal Amy Buffington said.

Buffington said when Muhs and another staff member visit a family home to ensure they have necessary resources, Muhs can speak to a family’s cultural aspects, too.

Marisol is “a very hard worker, (is) very driven, and she cares about the school and values it,” Buffington said. “She understands what this program brings to the community, and why it is important to foster what we have here.”

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Extending resources includes helping host the Sheboygan Outreach Collective Resource Fair, in coordinator with community members and organizations. More than 20 community organizations participated last year.

Muhs coordinated other family events last year, too, like a session that focused on relationship-building and financial literacy for families and an opportunity for students to help create a music video with dance group LADAMA and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

Broadening horizons for Sheridan students

With the family liaison role reduced, Muhs took on more responsibility for the CCLC, which is a before- and after-school care program funded by a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction grant.

Buffington said the amount of work Muhs puts into the CCLC program exceeds its part-time parameters.

Muhs said she wanted to improve the morning learning program by not only providing a place for early working families to drop off their kids but also a space for them to learn. The after-school program is similar, with an academic hour and enrichment activities like soccer, swimming, gymnastics and going to YMCA and Discovery World.

"There's so many opportunities that otherwise the kids wouldn't be able to have," Muhs said. Families may face transportation or cost barriers.

The CCLC served an average of 105 students a day, but now can support about 20 and 70 students in the morning and afternoon, respectively. The program's grant was renewed for five years, but fewer students can enroll because of a budget cut, Muhs said. There are 25 students on the waiting list.

"I have the opportunity to help not just families but the whole community — the students,” Muhs said.

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Ruiz's third-grade daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, benefits from the after-school program's academic portion, but she has seen “tremendous growth” in her social emotional learning since being in the after-school program since kindergarten. Her progress translated to the classroom, too.

“She would sometimes shut down, and she (got) quiet and stayed to the side,” Ruiz said. “That's not happening anymore.”

Ruiz said Muhs is flexible and understanding, helping her daughter stay in the program when she has to leave for therapy. Muhs also connects with her and other families on an individual level, Ruiz said, even while waiting to pick up her daughter.

Ruiz said, “She (has) been a tireless advocate for the families and (is) always trying to figure out what is needed.”

Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@gannett.com. Follow her on X (previously Twitter) at @alexx_garner. 

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan Sheridan Elementary staffer helps Spanish-speaking families