After two months of uncertainty around the future destination of its magnet Mandarin program, the Glenwood Elementary School community and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district have answers for one pathway — but questions remain for its other pathway.
The CHCCS Board of Education voted 6-1 on Thursday night against moving the full student body of Glenwood together to a campus, with Melinda Manning as the dissenting vote. A later vote of 5-2 saw the approval of moving the dual language program to Rashkis Elementary, with Manning and Rani Dasi as the dissenters.
Following Option 2 as presented to the board in July, the world language pathway — where students receive only 90 minutes of focused Mandarin instruction each week compared to dual language students learning with 50% Mandarin instruction each day — also would be moved to a separate school, most likely Mary Scroggs Elementary in Chapel Hill. But board members shared wariness of immediately approving that decision, citing concerns around maintaining the learning pathway’s magnet status and integrating the Mandarin world language option alongside the existing Spanish instruction at Scroggs.
Most of the board comments on Thursday acknowledged the challenging task at hand: maintaining the vitality and sustainability of Glenwood’s current culture of Mandarin education, while limiting the disruption to the campuses receiving students. Data presented by N.C. State University researcher Matthew Palmer during July’s meeting indicated splitting up the two learning tracks would require a few dozen students at both Rashkis Elementary and Scroggs Elementary to be redistricted, instead of hundreds at either if the entire STEAM² program was relocated.
The school board’s vote goes against the approach many current Glenwood Elementary School families advocated for. Since the possibility of separating the program was raised last month, many wrote and spoke to district leaders about their belief of maintaining the connection of the dual language and world language learning pathways — including several during Thursday’s public comment portion.
While world language students receive less Mandarin instructional time, the two tracks share many resources and spaces within Glenwood’s school building. The result is a diverse and supportive culture, which families argued could be threatened if the pathways are moved away from the other. The ability to fully staff each would present a challenge too, they said, based on how the educators overlap responsibilities and take time to recruit.
Several dual language or multi-lingual educators, advocacy groups and organizations shared those sentiments with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools as well. In the lead-up to Thursday’s vote, the organization FLANC and the Chinese Language Association of Educators penned a letter with recommendations to the district for transitioning Glenwood’s staff and students to a new home. Its primary suggestion was maintaining the program’s two pathways on the same campus, saying it would maintain quality, integrity and sustainability at a time when many dual language programs face uncertainty in the state. Staff retainment and recruitment is a crucial part of that, the president of each group wrote, because of competitive national positions and challenging federal conditions around work visas for immigrants.
Rashkis Elementary and Mary Scroggs Elementary, both in Chapel Hill, are centrally located in the CHCCS district and have enrollment capacity to absorb Glenwood Elementary students with less disruption than others. (Photos via Elena Pace/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Meanwhile, Rashkis Elementary community members had also been advocating for their school community to welcome one of the learning pathways. But many shared concerns of how adding all of Glenwood’s students — with a current enrollment close to 400 — would lead most current Rashkis students to be redistricted and only a few remaining in a traditional model. Additionally, some educators shared concerns of how integrating Glenwood’s learning models would work with Rashkis’ robust adaptive education curriculum offered to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Board Member Meredith Ballew, a longtime advocate for IDD educators and students, similarly shared those concerns and voted only after receiving assurances from Superintendent Rodney Trice that the students in AEC will be supported.
But unlike the dual language program, which sees steady and high enrollment, transitioning the world language pathway may not be as straightforward, the board members said. While Option 2 seemed to indicate it would similarly maintain magnet status and integrate into another school’s community — with Palmer and district staff saying Mary Scroggs Elementary is the primary candidate — details shared from Glenwood families during recent listening sessions created fresh uncertainty of whether the pathway could stand on its own from the dual language Mandarin program.
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to designate Scroggs as the landing spot for the world language program — but to delay any approval of the Mandarin instruction actually maintaining a magnet designation or any decision to dissolve it.
Glenwood’s status as a magnet school started in 2020 and followed a vote in 2018 to designate the school for Mandarin learning. That result came from the dual language program’s popularity after being introduced in 2002, with the elementary school routinely facing overcrowding issues between students in its traditional learning pathway and Mandarin program. The school board’s decision in 2018 divided community members at the time, but ultimately improved Glenwood and the district’s ability to grow the STEAM² program’s capacity, add the world language pathway, and build the popularity it enjoys today.
With the school board’s decision now made — even with questions around the feasibility of the world language Mandarin track — the district staff’s planning efforts will shift toward redistricting. To accommodate for Rashkis Elementary students on the move alongside elementary schools with classroom capacity, CHCCS is preparing to conduct widespread redistricting before the 2027-28 school year. Deputy Superintendent for Operations Al Ciarochi said Thursday night a redistricting plan would be brought to the public in October, “by the earliest,” which would be followed by public information meetings and engagement sessions. The school board would then be voting to approve a plan in December, as the district would need roughly six months to transition.
Amid the focus on Thursday night’s meeting, CHCCS families were also preparing for the new school year. Most district schools hosted their “Back to School Night” events on Thursday, while students return to classrooms on Monday, August 24.
Featured photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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