Lack of teachers to force Park City, Utah program to close

The Park Record

Letter to the Editor: May 1, 2022 From a student in the district

Utah is the leader in Dual Language Immersion (DLI) and secondary language learning programs in the United States. Utah currently offers DLI and secondary language programs in the public school system in six different languages. Park City School District has successfully implemented 3, Spanish and French in (DLI) and Mandarin. Spanish is the top secondary language in the state of Utah, Mandarin second and French is third.

The Mandarin Learning Program in PCSD started in 2002, when David Knell became the first teacher in the state of Utah to start teaching Mandarin at the high school level. He retired in June of 2021. The Mandarin program has transitioned to Dr. Kerong Wu. However, we were recently informed that advanced Chinese classes beyond Chinese 3 would be cancelled for the 2022/2023 school year. This was due to low enrollment numbers, but they are at similar enrollment numbers, if not greater than the 2021/2022 school year by 1 student I believe. And now I was told Dr. Wu has resigned and the school district has not been able to find a replacement. So, on the 20th anniversary of this incredible program, the Mandarin learning program has been cancelled! With the incoming students and existing Mandarin learners that has to be over 70 students impacted.

Please read more here.