More on the possible Boston Mandarin immersion charter

By DEBRA SCHERBAN

@DebraScherban

HADLEY — The executive director and a trustee of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School aim to open a second school near Boston, even as the Hadley school expands into the secondary grades.

Richard E. Alcorn, the school’s director, and trustee Rosalie Porter, a language educator, both of Amherst, submitted a prospectus to the state proposing a kindergarten through 12th-grade Chinese Immersion Charter School to serve Brookline, Cambridge, Newton, Waltham, Watertown and Weston. Joining them in the bid is Cambridge educator Anne S. Watt. The application states that the school would be located “probably” in Newton.

According to the prospectus, there is a dearth of Chinese programs in the northeast, and a school near Boston would fill a need.

“At this time, the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School remains the only extended sequence Chinese language and culture program in New England,” according to the documents filed with the state. The Newton-area school would serve as “a regional hub” encompassing a population on the same scale as other successful Chinese immersion programs in the United States and “is modeled on a proven program, the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School.”

Reached by the Bulletin at the Amherst campus of the Hadley school, Alcorn declined comment, saying he was too busy to be interviewed.

More here.