CHS MANDARIN CHINESE LANGUAGE COURSE PROMPTS QUESTIONS, FEW ANSWERS

A plan to offer an optional Mandarin Chinese language course next year at Columbia High School is drawing a mix of support and puzzlement as it comes with few details about funding, no school board approval as of yet, and no plan for a second year.

Many CHS parents last week received the formal offering from Dr. Ramon Robles-Fernandez, K-12 world languages supervisor, offering three sections of the course next year. It stated, in part:

Dear CHS Family: 
We are delighted to be able to offer Mandarin Chinese classes at CHS in 2017-2018. 
SOMSD has been selected by the US Department of Education to host a teacher of Chinese for the next school year to help us start a Mandarin Chinese program. We are excited to offer our students an opportunity to enroll in this course, and plan to offer 3 sections of Mandarin for next year. Sections will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and sections will be closed once we have reached the class size limit. 

See it HERE.

Some were surprised at the option given that several basic courses in world language, including Freshman Latin at Columbia High School, were recently cut in the latest budget proposal, which is set for a final approval tonight.

The Mandarin courses have yet to receive school board approval and the offering gives no indication as to how they will be funded or if they will be available beyond one year.

We reached out to School Board President Elizabeth Baker and District Spokeswoman Suzanne Turner Friday to ask about the timing, funding and board approval.

Turner did not respond, while Baker said via email: 

This will be covered at Monday's meeting. To the extent we are able to share information before Monday, Suzanne will get back to you.

Tonight's meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. in the Columbia High School library.