Do we have the names of the backers of the proposed Mandarin immersion school? I would be interested to know who they are.

I strongly encourage community members to take the time to educate themselves from every side of this petition, if you have not already, here is how: www.mpcsd.org, www.menlomandarin.org, and Web Link

The meeting on November 12 at 6:30pm in the Encinal Multi is open to the public. The first portion of the meeting will be open to Public Comment. Come, hear what people in the community are saying, comment if you wish. Then the MPCSD School Board will publicly discuss and decide whether to confirm or deny the MMICS petition. This is an open process, be a part of it – maybe even bring your children as a civics lesson, but be there. This impacts all of the homeowners in MPCSD, whether your kids are in private school, public school, coming somewhere down the line, have already gone off to college or you don’t have any now and never will.

You can see the entire petition and other documents on the school district's website. The petition contains the names of the founders and board of the proposed school and the non-profit that would run it.

Web Link

Regarding the petition doc: thanks for the link, Caryn Wasserstein.

If the surnames are indicative of the makeup of the founders and interested families, then this petition for a charter should fail due to its "... racial and ethnic balance in its student population", since it clearly does not reflect "...the district's current racial and ethnic makeup".

Personally, I think adding more options for language instruction to the MPCSD curriculum is a good idea, but think MI is a bad fit for MPCSD for all the reasons cited in the report, and because there just isn't room in the overcrowded buildings. And as mentioned in the report, there are other programs nearby which are not yet even tested as to the interest level for Mandarin (in particular, the new Redwood City program). In my opinion, Mandarin Immersion should be revisited after seeing actual attendance records in Redwood City; if it fills up as quickly and gets into lottery territory, that would strengthen the claims by the MI folks that there's interest.

I hope the MPCSD board does the right thing and deny the petition. Though I do hope they make an effort to add more language options to the the district in the near future.

I am all for adding language programs. As a person that did not learn a second language in school but had to do it much later in life I value the ability to speak more than English. However, I feel a seperate Charter School for Mandarin is not the way to go. I think the school district should evaluate the effectiveness of the Spanish Immersion program that they currently have and if it is successful they should look to expanding it to another language, maybe that is Mandarin or Russian, or some other language based on the level of support from the parents and the community.

Brian - this has nothing to do with what is right or beneficial for the majority of the students in Menlo Park. It has everything to do with a small group people who want a Mandarin (not language, specifically Mandarin) program in Menlo Park that is publicly funded. This group doesn't care that there are other local MI programs available because they are private and cost $$. They don't care that the program would negatively affect the other Menlo Park School District students because as a Basic Aide District MP could be forced to pay to educate students from other Districts. They just want what they want and they want it now, most likely because they have children who will be in Kindergarten or 1st grade next year.

palo alto parent, these are our neighbors you are talking about. Do you know them?