April 21, 2020

Dear Dr. Geoff Yantz,

We hope you are well and staying safe.

In midst of changes in learning platform and budget needs, many parents have expressed concerns of learning arrangement in the coming year.

We wanted to address some concerns of parents whose children are or will be in the Chinese class 2020-2021. We urge the board to keep the reasonable and important service for the Chinese program in SPHS based on the enrollment and the beauty of the program. Here is the tentative registration record for 2020-2021 as of March 31st, 2020.

Currently, we have 165 students enrolled in school year 2019-2020. We are estimating 160 -165 student registration for 2020-2021. The class size cap for AP Chinese is 15 and 7/8H 15 and for other Chinese level classes, the cap is 36. But average size of Spanish and French courses in high school is around 25. Therefore, based on the estimated registration and the average of class size, we should have 7 classes in year 2020-2021.

The number will go up in May due to the popularity of the program. In addition to the classroom learning, students were given overseas travel learning opportunity in Spring 2019 with the delegation led by our own Chinese teacher. If the board reduces 0.40 F.T.E service of the program, then there will be only 5 sessions remained for 2020-2021. Therefore, we are seriously concerned about how the program will meet our students’ needs:

1. Large class size and combination of different level classes. How will the district place these 165 students in 5 sessions?
2. Some students will be discouraged to take a desired Chinese language class because of limited sessions, and schedule conflicts. Some students may not have a space in a desired class.
3. We are requesting an equal or smaller class size as other language and culture classes such as Spanish and French class in order to ensure equitable treatment of all language and culture classes.
4. All language and culture classes in SPHS should be given in a standard and fair learning environment in order for students to thrive in learning.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

South Pasadena Parents signature:

(Parent’s signatures are electronically submitted due to COVID-19 social distancing order).

Print name: Print name:

________________________, ________________________

Sign here: Sign here:

________________________ _________________________