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Parents, staff and students urge board to halt district proposal that would alter Alice Fong Yu immersion composition
Summary
Dozens of Alice Fong Yu parents and school leaders told the San Francisco Board of Education that a district proposal allowing up to two‑thirds Cantonese‑proficient incoming kindergartners would undermine the school's Chinese immersion mission, reduce ethnic diversity and proceed without consistent language‑proficiency testing; the board referred the matter to the curriculum committee for Jan. 18.
Dozens of parents and school leaders from Alice Fong Yu urged the San Francisco Board of Education on Jan. 10 to drop a district proposal that would permit up to two‑thirds of incoming kindergartners to be Cantonese‑proficient English learners.
"How can an immersion program be successful with a two‑thirds EL population?" asked Deborah Kwan, identified as president of the AFY Parents Association, arguing that immersion requires most students to be non‑native in the target language. Parents and school site council members repeatedly warned that making a majority of students native Cantonese speakers would turn AFY into a newcomer/ESL program and harm the school's immersion objectives and ethnic diversity.
Multiple speakers also raised procedural concerns. Dennis Yi, a school‑site council member, asked for the legal basis of a two‑thirds requirement and highlighted that the district is not consistently administering language‑proficiency assessments. "Without assessment of all applicants, how on earth can an accurate proportion of English learners and English proficient students be assigned in the first place?" Wayne Yen said.
School leaders and parents described academic gains under the existing AFY model and urged the board to preserve the program's mission. "By the eighth grade, our students are able to read, write, and speak fluently in both Cantonese and Mandarin," said Anne Kang, treasurer of the AFY Parent Association, who said the district is changing the student's composition "without agreement from the AFY community."
Board members acknowledged the intensity of comment and asked staff for information. Superintendent Garcia and multiple commissioners said the matter should be considered at an agendized committee meeting rather than debated in open public comment. The board scheduled a curriculum committee meeting for Jan. 18 and asked staff to prepare a factual update including: the rationale for the proposed change, whether applicants are being tested for language proficiency, the legal basis for any ratio, and the student composition data by school.
Next steps: The board requested a staff briefing at the Jan. 18 curriculum committee meeting and did not take immediate formal action on AFY enrollment policy during the Jan. 10 session.
