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Parents urge Barrington CUSD 220 to restore two sections for Chinese immersion kindergarten and first grade
Summary
At the March 3 board meeting, parents and Bington Chinese Immersion Council representatives pressed the Barrington CUSD 220 board to reverse last summer's reduction of kindergarten and first-grade Chinese immersion cohorts to single sections, citing teacher overload, student attrition and recruitment obstacles.
A group of Chinese-immersion parents told the Barrington CUSD 220 Board of Education on March 3 that the district should restore two sections for both kindergarten and first grade after administrators reduced cohorts to single sections last summer.
"Last summer's decision to reduce two cohorts to single sections was narrow in vision and shortsighted," said parent and BCIC board member Aaron LaS, who said the change left teachers teaching two grade levels, increased classroom load and contributed to attrition. LaS said five kindergarten students left the program this year and that at least nine families from other areas have inquired about joining the program but have faced uncertainty about open seats.
The district's Chinese immersion advocates framed the issue as both instructional and communal. "If we cap our kindergarten and first grade classes … our community gets smaller and smaller," said Leang Chang, secretary of the Bington Chinese Immersion Council, urging the board not to limit incoming enrollment so the program remains a "destination" for families.
Parents described classroom logistics that they said reduce the time available for one-on-one and small-group instruction in bilingual settings and said the consolidation undermined cohort social stability and recruitment. LaS urged the board to "return current kindergarten and first grade cohorts to two sections each and offer two sections to the incoming class."
District officials did not take immediate action on the request at the meeting. Administration told the board it will continue to provide enrollment updates and follow up on public comments; the board asked staff to keep this item on the district's monitoring and enrollment reports. No vote on changing sectioning was taken at the March 3 meeting.
What happened next: The administration said it will continue updating enrollment information to the board and said it will include related enrollment and program-stability data in future board materials. The public-comment requests will be part of the district's ongoing enrollment discussion ahead of staffing decisions this spring.
