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‘‘We want to reach out to parents we’ve never seen,” said Susan Brice, Galway’s staff development teacher, who helped write the grant proposal. Brice was one of a dozen Galway staff members and parents who attended a Nov. 14 presentation on the basics of the school system at the Eastern Montgomery Regional Services Center. The event, held in conjunction with the Guides program, was sponsored by the PTA.

Brice’s proposal netted the school more than $8,000, most of which is going toward document translation and providing interpreters at school events, said Kim Jones, the program’s coordinator. Additional funding will allow teachers to mentor individual students as part of the program, she said.

The guides, each working with one or two families, will use many of the translated class newsletters and school information packets as part of their mentoring.

‘‘We’re trying to get more inclusiveness,” said Joyce Philip, the PTA president. Galway students speak a variety of languages at home, Philip said, from Spanish to Vietnamese to Amharic, which is spoken in Ethiopia. Countywide, there are students from 163 countries speaking 134 languages, according to MCPS.

Program leaders hope the translations and guides will increase the school involvement of parents who would otherwise rely on their children for translation or not attend informational meetings at school because of the language barrier, Philip said.

‘‘It takes effort to get parents involved, even those who speak English,” she said.

Katie Martin, one of the Galway Guides, is fluent in Spanish and did some translating for other parents at her son’s kindergarten orientation earlier this school year. When she recently spoke to her son’s teacher about homework concerns, she thought of parents who do not speak English and would be unable to do the same.

‘‘I can’t even imagine if I couldn’t help my child,” Martin said.

Martin believes many parents want to be involved but are afraid to communicate with teachers, because of the language barrier or their own immigration status.

‘‘Parents have the questions; they just don’t know how to answer them,” she said.

The school system is addressing the problem countywide with its new Parent Academy, a series of 18 free workshops designed to provide parents with information on a variety of topics, including literacy, homework, student rights and the transition to middle school and high school.

Combined, the programs are designed to let parents know MCPS wants them to be active in their child’s school.

‘‘It’s different when someone from the central office says, ‘It’s OK to ask questions,’” said Denise Stultz, supervisor of the Division of Family and Community Partnerships, which oversees the Parent Academy within the school system’s Department of Communications.

Stultz presented one of the workshops, ‘‘New to MCPS? Learn to Navigate the School System,” at the services center, providing an overview of the school system’s demographics, curricula, benchmarks, graduation requirements and resources available for parents, among other topics.

Concerning Galway’s program, Stultz noted schools can leave automated phone messages in multiple languages, and MCPS offers Language Line, a 24-hour translation service. Most importantly she encouraged parents to read to their children in English or their native language and talk to them about school. No matter what language parents speak, Stultz concluded, a desire for a good education for their child is universal.

‘‘All of us are having the same worries and same concerns,” she said.