#Lausd early bird late bird update#
#Lausd early bird late bird full#

Ask them to do that and you might find one of your trained and beloved teachers is suddenly poachable. ThatвЂ™s one of the bigger problem in Mandarin immersion programs, the leading edge teachers as each new grade is filled have to create an entirely new curriculum. But moving two of her teachers to a higher grade for a year is asking an awful lot because theyвЂ™d have to create an entirely new curriculum and teach it for a year before they went back to Kindergarten. TheyвЂ™re worth their weight in gold these days on the open market so she canвЂ™t afford to lose them. ItвЂ™s also little comfort to Wang, whoвЂ™s got to find a way to keep her four precious Kindergarten teachers busy. But thatвЂ™s little comfort to the Kinder parents who had hoped for a seat. I talked to the ever-calm and reasonable Susan Wang, BroadwayвЂ™s amazing principal, and she said that itвЂ™s only temporary and that for 2014-2015 they plan on having the Mandarin program back up to four Kindergartens. Parents who wanted them, some whoвЂ™ve been waiting YEARS to get in and who helped the program start, didnвЂ™t get a place and theyвЂ™re angry, frustrated and at witвЂ™s end. And thatВ means that on LAвЂ™s West side there are only 22 open seats for Mandarin immersion next year. NothingвЂ™s been set in stone yet but thatвЂ™s what seems to be going down.

#Lausd early bird late bird full#

And because itвЂ™s such a popular program, one of those classes is already full of the younger brothers and sisters of current students. Which means that for 2013-2014 Broadway is very likely to only be able to enroll TWO Mandarin immersion Kindergarten classes, rather than four. Unfortunately LAUSD already promised to start a Spanish immersion program at Broadway, so theyвЂ™ve got to make room for that.

Due in part to that and in part who knows what, the district didnвЂ™t get to work making the facility вЂњsafe and operationalвЂќ for a bunch of Kindergarteners in time, so the Mandarin program canвЂ™t move until 2014-2015. Unfortunately, the LA school board may have made the decision but they didnвЂ™t do a good job of selling the idea to the Marina del Rey school community, creating a lot of anger, resentment and slowness. So last year the Los Angeles Unified School District decided to move the whole program over to Marina Del Ray Middle School and create a K-8 Mandarin immersion school there. Which was a problem because Broadway doesnвЂ™t have 30 classrooms, which is what it would need to accommodate five classes per grade (four Mandarin immersion, one English) from Kindergarten to fifth grade. Broadway Elementary School on Los AngelsвЂ™ west side, is home to a wildly popular Mandarin immersion program, Launched in 2010 itвЂ™s proven so enticing that in the last two years theyвЂ™ve enrolled FOUR classes of incoming Kindergarteners. Mandarin trouble.В And boy am I getting emails about it. ThatвЂ™s one down from this year, when they began with four, but one more than theyвЂ™d been told theyвЂ™d get.ДЇrom the looks of it, theyвЂ™ve accomplished this by moving the regular English program to nearby Westminster Elementary, along with their Special Day Classes (classes for disabled students.) LA Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy sent an email to parents at the school on April 9 saying that the Mandarin immersion program will get three Kindergarten classes next year.

#Lausd early bird late bird update#

An update from the story below, posted on April 5.