It’s been a bumpy road for Glenwood Elementary recently, but last week saw the proposed schoolwide Dual Language Mandarin magnet program at Glenwood take a step closer to reality.

The Board of Education received an update on a draft proposal that lays out changes that would happen at the Elementary school.

Board member Pat Heinrich, who received criticism for his conduct during last September’s vote to approve the transition of Glenwood, praised the thoughtfulness of this proposal despite the challenges the implementation committee had faced.

“There is a tremendous amount of work that was put into this, and that investment really shows,” he said. “And I know this hasn’t been easy.”

The implementation committee will host a community and parent engagement session at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Smith Middle School as they continue to work on the plan.

The draft proposal right now would make Glenwood a Mandarin Dual Language program but maintain two tracks within the school. The dual-language track would put an emphasis on learning mandarin as a secondary language, with integration in classes across the curriculum. The traditional track would approach mandarin as a foreign language and have most classes in English.

One of the main concerns from parents and staff at Glenwood was addressing the schism caused by the debate over Glenwood’s future. Members of the committee said uniting the school was a priority.

“We need to find ways to unite the Glenwood community, and when we’re thinking of that, we’re thinking of family and the community as well as students and staff.”

The draft plan calls for students and staff from both tracks to participate together in special area classes like PE, arts and music, and in extracurricular programming like field trips and after-school events. Students on both tracks would be chosen through a lottery.

A fully-developed plan is scheduled to be finalized in late May and voted on at a June 5 board meeting. If passed by the board, the changes to Glenwood Elementary would start in Fall 2020.

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