CHCCS expands Mandarin

Sometimes you can’t turn back.

At least, that’s the lesson members of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board of Education are learning with the implementation of the district’s Mandarin-English Dual Language program at Glenwood Elementary School.

Glenwood’s capacity is 423 students, and, with more than 500 students currently enrolled, the district has been crafting short and long term solutions to address the crowding since November.

The board debated curtailing its expansion of the Mandarin-English Dual Language program, which provides students with both language and content instruction in Mandarin and English.

The program is expensive, and it’s one of the biggest drivers in the growth at Glenwood Elementary.

But during its meeting Thursday night, the board opted to continue with its planned expansion of the program at Glenwood.

The decision also called for the district to move 76 Glenwood students to other elementary schools.

The board approved the expansion after hearing from dozens of concerned parents on both sides of the debate at the beginning of the meeting.

“For difficult decisions like this, I want to get it right,” said board member Andrew Davidson. “I want to make sure we get it right so we adversely affect as few students as possible.”

While the Mandarin-English Dual Language program is expensive for the district, Davidson said the only way to minimize the costs is to continue expanding.

“For the disparate costs between Mandarin Language and a traditional education, I think the solution should be let’s bring the costs in line with a traditional education,” Davidson said.

District staff’s original plan called for the Mandarin-English Dual Language program to be scaled back to only admit Glenwood students, but the board voted to keep the program open to students from across the district.

“This program has to be accessible to everyone,” said board member Michelle Brownstein. “It cannot be because of where you live, who you know or what listserv you’re on … I would love for it to be on the Kindergarten registration.”

Superintendent Tom Forcella said while the district hates to redistrict students, the board had to take measures to reduce the crowding at Glenwood.

“We are in a very difficult budget year,” Forcella said. “We will do what we have to do. But we don’t want to be shortsighted because this is a difficult budget driver.”

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