Under the direction of the Director of Special Education and/or an assigned administrator, perform a variety of duties involved in interpreting and translating a wide variety of complex written and oral communication in English and Spanish, to facilitate communication between District and non-English speaking students, parents, or community members; perform a variety of clerical work for various programs.
Essential Functions:
- Maintain District standards of excellent customer service and professional behavior in various and sometimes challenging situations.
- Access and monitor District email daily to receive important updates from school and District administration.
- Participate in staff development and in-service training programs as assigned.
- Translate and interpret in English and Spanish for groups and individuals; compose and prepare correspondence in English and Spanish; translate letters, notices, documents, educational materials, and technical terminology used by the psychologist, speech therapist, District Nurse, and other District personnel; provide explanations to facilitate communications, promote understanding and develop rapport with non-English speaking parents.
- Attend and Interpret meetings between school officials and Spanish speaking parents; interpret student and parental concerns to school administrators.
- Interpret, translate, and maintain records of proceedings for public and confidential hearings and official District meetings, workshops, conferences, special events; including but not limited to Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team meetings, educational assessments, and previously recorded conversations of meetings.
- Read and translate written materials, including official documents, forms, letters, notes, reports, presentations, and other correspondence, and determine most accurate shades of meaning and review and edit translations for accuracy, context, style, and readability.
- Maintain strict confidentiality of sensitive and privileged information.
- Assist with communication between school staff and parents; receive phone calls from Spanish speaking parents and relate matters to school staff; phone parents to disseminate information.
- Serves as a liaison between staff and parents to ensure translations and documents are properly translated. Verifies and clarifies information to be translated.
- Perform a variety of clerical duties in support of school staff including duplicating instructional materials, answering phone, maintaining materials and supplies, completing forms and records, typing, proofreading, filing, and verifying and posting information on records.
- May prepare letters, memoranda, purchase orders, instructional materials, curriculum outlines, reports and other materials from oral directions, rough draft, copy or notes.
- Operate a variety of office equipment, computer and assigned software, utilize various interpretation equipment.
- May assist psychologist, speech therapists and others in administering tests to Spanish-speaking students to assure that accurate test results are obtained.
- Prepare and maintain a variety of records and reports including state or federal mandated program records; compile requested information and prepare basic statistical reports; sort and file documents and records according to predetermined classifications, maintaining alphabetical, index and cross reference files.
- Assist in ordering and maintaining adequate stocks of office supplies.
- Receive, sort, and distribute incoming and outgoing mail, mail letters, forms, and applications.
- Attend and assist with planning after hour events such as Back to School Night and Open House, etc.
Other Duties:
- Perform other duties as assigned.
- May be assigned out of class work as prescribed by Merit Rules and Regulations.
Knowledge of:
- District standards of excellent customer service, interpersonal skills using tact, patience, and courtesy.
- Correct English and Spanish usage, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
- Correct oral and written usage of English and a designated second language.
- Customs, cultural and regional differences in word usage and idioms.
- Human relation skills to interact in formal and informal settings with a wide variety of contacts.
- Modern office practices, procedures, and equipment.
- Filing techniques.
- Basic record-keeping procedures.
Ability to:
- Understand and follow oral and written directions.
- Establish and maintain effective and cooperative working relationships with others.
- Communicate respectfully and effectively with students, staff, and the public both orally and in writing.
- Learn and incorporate new skills, techniques and/or industry trends.
- Maintain regular and consistent attendance.
- Recognize the needs of non-English speaking students and parents.
- Read, write, interpret, translate, proofread, and speak Spanish and English fluently without altering the original meaning and intent.
- Compose and prepare correspondence in English and Spanish.
- Organize and adhere to a strict calendar of events, meetings, and translation schedules.
- Learn District organization, operations, policies, and objectives.
- Perform clerical work of average difficulty without close supervision.
- Make simple arithmetic calculations.
- Maintain records and prepare reports.
- Operate a variety of office equipment.
Education/Licenses/Experience: Any combination equivalent to sufficient education, experience, and/or training to demonstrate the knowledge and abilities listed above. Typically, this would be gained through: Graduation from high school and a minimum of one year college level coursework or trainings, and two years of general clerical experience including experience in reading, writing, speaking, interpreting, and translating English and Spanish. Successful completion of the Merit examination process is required.
