CMAS presents seminars for parents known as "Maestros de la Comunidad."  Each seminar includes about 20 Spanish-speaking immigrant parents as participants who have children in K-12 public schools and consists of nine meetings over about 16 weeks.

  The seminars are conducted entirely in Spanish and the U. T. Arlington program is coordinated by Prof. Jaime Nisttáhuz.  Aimed principally at assisting Spanish-speaking immigrant parents to navigate their children's educational system, it provides them with information about district policies, encourages them to volunteer, assists them in serving as better advocates for their childrens' education, and encourages them to help other parents in similar situations.   Seminar topics normally include:

• Differences in the educational system here and that in Mexico and other Latin American countries
• The role of parents in the public school system
• Student discipline in public schools; the rights and obligations of students and parents
• Culture and building self-esteem in children
• Orientation and information regarding higher education and the immigrant family
• State laws and Latino community-police relations
• Getting help from public agencies and nonprofit organizations in Tarrant County

Some of these topics are led by the facilitator or college faculty, others are led by guest speakers or by previous graduates of the Maestros de la Comunidad program.

Curso Público I:  Civic Participation Tools for a Community Leader
  A second seminar is organized for community leaders and graduates of the above parents' seminar on civic participation.

One-day Parents' Conferences
   The network of Tarrant County College, MVC and UTA Maestros de la Comunidad seminars have hosted one-day parents' conferences and plan to host others.  These conferences are organized by the parents that have recently completed a nine-session seminar and include a hundred or more other Spanish-speaking parents who are similarly interested in learning from other parents about how to become more involved in their children's education.

Maestros de la Comunidad Organization
  In January 2003, former seminar participants created an independent parent's organization also named Maestros de la Comunidad, adopted a set of by-laws, elected officers and an executive committee, appointed coordinators of standing committees, and scheduled meetings.  Some of these meetings have been held at the Center for Mexican American Studies.  The mailing address of the Maestros de la Comunidad is P.O. Box 195159, Arlington, TX, 76019.