Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

The parents at the new Chinese School to be created at DeAvila for 2009-2010 were told last night at a Curriculum Meeting at the district office that the program has once again been changed, this time back to its original Cantonese Immersion program.   The district staff recommended following:

• Three Kindergarten Classes, one two-way Cantonese Immersion and two one-way Cantonese Immersion introducing Mandarin in 2nd grade.
• Two First Grade Classes, one two-way Cantonese Immersion and one one-way Cantonese Immersion.  Unclear if they intend to introduce first grade students to Mandarin in 2nd grade.

This  appears this is the final decision.   The District’s Educational Placement Center will be mailing out a poll to registered families asking for their preference into a one-way or a two-way immersion class.  This should be received by the end of the week.  Currently there are only four spots available for wait pool Kindergarten families and priority goes to the English language learner families, as they have not met the desired number of ELL students to make the two-way Cantonese Immersion ideal.  Presently there are seven ELL families registered in K and 1st grade.

There are a total of seventeen students registered for first grade, leaving 23 spots available.  Because of the change, and frustration over the District’s back-and-forth over this, a number of families which had wanted Mandarin have decided to not stay at DeAvila.  The remaining parents are working hard to bring their school community together after a roller coaster of a month.