Carla McNelly Valladares

Dr. Carla McNelly Valladares is the Love of Reading Family and Community Educator at Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) Meredith Nicholson elementary school. Her role during the Covid-19 pandemic has been providing encouragement and support to Spanish speaking language learning students and families who make up 95% of the school’s population. Student and family encouragement and support includes one-on-one and group in-person, virtual, and hybrid contact. Examples include translating communication from teachers, English and Spanish language development, teaching students to read in Spanish, bilingual newcomer reading groups, and wholistic programming that meets the needs of individual and small groups of students.