Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

By Elizabeth Weise

The Chinese Immersion School at DeAvila, is off to a “rocking good start,” says Nicole Hsieh, the new school’s new PTA president.

The District’s fifth Chinese immersion school opened this year.  It is Cantonese-English, and will introduce Mandarin in second grade.

The school has three Kindergartens and two first grade classes. The Kindergarten was full, though a few spots may open up as people move around the first two weeks of school. The first grade still has a few spots, Hsieh says.

One of the Kindergarten classes is two-way immersion, with 50% Cantonese speakers and 50% English speakers. The rest of the classes are de facto one-way, with too few Cantonese speakers to make them fully two-way.

The parents only got word they were being given spaces in a totally new school last spring and hit the ground running. “We have a ton of working committees and  fundraising going on,” says Hsieh. “We’ve already had eight events since March, play dates and picnic potlucks. We have at least 15 more scheduled on our calendar for the rest of the year.”

The DeAvila parents have already reserved a restaurant for their Moon Festival Gala fundraiser and hope to march in the Chinese New Year’s Parade this year.

The school’s students come from a broad range of families, from newly-immigrated Cantonese speakers to 100% Caucasian families with no connection to Chinese at all — before now. All are “really committed,” to making the school a success, Hsieh says.

Because the families had to do so much before the doors even opened, the first day of school felt more like a triumph than a cold start.

“My husband and I are on cloud nine,” says Hsieh. “The first day of school we were walking up and hugging parents like they were old friends already because we’ve been meeting weekly for months. A huge portion of the kids already knew each other because we’ve been having meetings in each others home, because the school wasn’t open. It feels like an extended family already.”

It’s a thousand times better than Hsieh says she could have imagined her child’s first day of school being back in March, when she got her enrollment letter from the District saying they were 0 for 7.

“We’re rocking and rolling!” she says.

You can learn more about the school by clicking this link: cisdeavila.com