Parents opting out of the Blue Valley School District’s Chinese Immersion program worry their students are getting left behind in an already crowded school.
That’s the latest in recent discussions around the district’s program, which offers an immersive education taught in Mandarin to students at Valley Park and Wolf Springs elementary schools. The district is reevaluating sustainability of the program amid pressures with staffing shortages.
As the district begins conversations about changing school boundaries to address crowding at Valley Park Elementary, some parents have raised alarm bells about the ripple effects of the Chinese Immersion program on students in traditional classrooms.
Parents worry traditional students are at a disadvantage at a crowded school
- Valley Park Elementary had 647 students for the 2022-23 school year, and district officials expect that number to rise in the coming years.
- District documents indicate 172 of those students were enrolled in the Chinese Immersion program — which costs the district an annual $1,651 per student.
- District officials told the Post teacher-to-student ratios in Chinese Immersion classrooms tend to be lower than in traditional classrooms, and that the typical base funding per student in Blue Valley for general education is roughly $7,600 per student.
- Valley Park Elementary parent Nick Boehm said the high number of students at the school combined with the extra costs for the program could leave students in traditional classrooms with less teacher attention.
- “We have a school that is packed to the gills,” he said. “We have this building that’s completely full, and some kids are basically getting functionally twice the teacher resources.”
The district proposed modifying or gradually eliminating it
- At a board meeting in February, district officials posed four options for an altered or eventually-eliminated Chinese Immersion program.
- The possibilities involved starting the program later (in third grade instead of kindergarten), offering an immersive Mandarin “special” class instead, or two approaches to “sunsetting” the program altogether.
- Kelly Ott, executive director of curriculum, cited staffing shortages as the biggest obstacle in continuing the program.
Parents also worry students slip through the cracks in the program
- Valley Park Elementary parent Rachel Johnson, who said her son was in the Chinese Immersion program for four years, said he was falling behind in math, which is taught in Mandarin, and she had to pick up the slack by teaching him at home in English.
- Johnson citied last year’s high teacher turnover rates as the reason why his former teachers couldn’t point to why he was falling behind.
- While her son’s math learning improved at home, Johnson said staff within the program also suggested he also get tutoring outside of school, which Johnson said didn’t feel like a fair ask.
- “If your child doesn’t learn, and you can’t help them yourself for free, the answer cannot be that you’re going to have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to catch him up,” she said. “Whether I could afford it or not, that is not a fair request to make in public schools.”
The district will decide what to do with the program this fall
- The district’s task force with school officials and parents in the program will continue to meet throughout the summer.
- In the meantime, faced with several parents and students voicing support for the program, the district earlier this year decided to open kindergarten enrollment for the Chinese Immersion program this fall. Officials previously said the program now requires a cap of 45 students per class.
- District officials have yet to confirm whether this cap has been met, but said the district will continue to monitor enrollment and potentially leave it open, even if the cap is not met.
Go deeper: Blue Valley to allow new Chinese Immersion enrollment next year
