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District says Lake Forest High School will phase out Mandarin program amid low future enrollment
Summary
District leaders told the board that LFHS administration decided to phase out the high school Mandarin program because of declining enrollment projections; affected families are being contacted and students will be offered options to change languages or remain in the program.
During the superintendent's report, Dr. Fitzsimmons told the board that high school administrators "made that difficult decision to phase out the Mandarin language program" citing declining enrollment and low future projections in the relevant grade cohorts. The district pledged outreach: Mr. Paulson, Dr. Shin and others have contacted families individually, and families were asked to indicate by April 30 whether they want to change languages or remain in Mandarin when applicable.
Administrators framed the move as fiscally driven, noting the district will continue to offer other world languages (Latin, Spanish and French) and that any student who is sufficiently advanced in Mandarin will not feel the impact. The administration invited continued dialogue with families and proposed revisiting community surveys on remote learning and emergency-day policies to consider alternate approaches.
