LA Mandarin immersion charter closes suddenly, leaving parents with few options

August 23, 2018 From: CBS2 Live

On Wednesday night, the board of trustees for the Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC Schools), voted to close PUC International Preparatory Academy (iPrep), located at 1800 Colorado Blvd. The closure took effect immediately Thursday. The new school year had just started up two days ago.

“Where am I going to leave her today?” parent Sandra Bairez told CBS2. “I have to call in sick.”

“This other school started like two weeks ago, what am I supposed to do now?” asked another angry mother. “Where do I take her, what do I do?”

iPrep needed 200 students to remain open, PUC Schools said in a news release. It only had 114 students as of this week.

Parents told CBS2 they had been urged to recruit more students, but had not been warned the situation was so dire. They said they bought uniforms and made childcare arrangements.

“We gave several communications to our families letting them know,” said Zenzontl Kuauhtzin, an administrator with PUC Schools, during a news conference during which he was interrupted by several angry parents.

Founded in 2016, iPrep was a K-8 Spanish-Mandarin dual immersion school.

“Enrollment is the largest source of funding for the school and with this level of enrollment, the program is not viable,” PUC wrote. “With so few students, it’s impossible to continue to operate and provide the types of programs that the students deserve.”

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