Dear MIP Community,

ADDITIONAL INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE INFORMATION - If you'd like to hear the presentation given by representatives from Carl Hankey and CVHS from last week's CUSD School Board Meeting, click on the link below. Their presentation starts approximately 21 minutes into the recording.

LINK TO 12/9 CUSD BOARD MEETING AUDIO RECORDING

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12/14/15 UPDATE - Please click on the link below to view this morning's Parent Meeting regarding the proposed feeder pattern for the Mandarin Immersion Program:

LINK TO 12/14 PARENT MEETING VIDEO

I'm in Support of the Proposed Carl Hankey / CVHS Feeder Pattern

As always, we appreciate your ongoing support and dedication to our program!

Ami Barrett

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Original Message sent 12/11/15:

FoMIP Executive Board PresidentAt the CUSD Board Meeting on Wednesday, December 9th the board discussed the new enrollment policy. During that discussion, two Trustees made a recommendation for a proposed Middle School / High School feeder pattern for our program:

Carl Hankey K-8 School
Capistrano Valley High School

Over the past several months the Friends of MIP Board has been monitoring recommendations from the district regarding our future school sites. We have provided the district with the criteria set forth in the parent survey and have had discussions with trustee members as well as administration from potential schools. The top three criteria for selection as determined by our November parent survey were: 1) Freeway Access 2) Ease of Drop-Off/Pick Up and 3) Availability of Advanced Programs such as IB (International Baccalaureate).

Carl Hankey Middle School is the only Middle School in southern Orange County to offer an IB program and is approximately 2 miles off the I-5 freeway at the Crown Valley exit. Carl Hankey is a K-8 program but many students transfer in via School of Choice at 6th grade to take advantage of the IB program there. While the “Middle School” experience there is different than other Middle Schools in the District due to the smaller size of the Middle School program at Carl Hankey, the opportunities of the IB program are something that no other Middle School in the District can offer. Their existing feeder pattern is to Capistrano Valley High School, which also offers an IB program. Capistrano Valley High School is located approximately half a mile off the I-5 freeway at the Avery exit.

At the beginning of the Board meeting, representatives from Carl Hankey and CVHS gave a very informative presentation about the International Baccalaureate programs at both schools. We also met with the principal of Carl Hankey, Dana Aguilera. She agreed that Carl Hankey would be a great school for our program to grow into. In keeping with the priorities for schools set by our parent community and after seeing their presentation and meeting with Principal Aguilera we are confident that the IB program would be an excellent environment in which our scholars could thrive and grow.

While adjustments would need to be made to accommodate more than one class in Mandarin (our goal is 2-3), the Carl Hankey website has the following description of their current Middle School IB program:

The middle school curriculum is framed through broad thematic categories. In this case, students take eight subject areas (two more than the district norm), which are taught through the “areas of interaction” (AOIs) of Community and Service, Health and Social Education, Environments, Human Ingenuity, and Approaches to Learning. The AOIs help to focus instruction and create connections between the subject content and the world. For instance, students might look at the Renaissance through the lens of human ingenuity or through the lens of environments, driving different inquiries and reflections into how learning and the real world are connected. Middle school students are required to take one period of Spanish (for MIP it would be substituted with Mandarin, plus additional periods of Mandarin as determined by the District) and PE every other week; 15 hours of fine arts instruction each year in addition to drama, instrumental music or music appreciation; and Design Technology, a problem-based class unique to IB that pushes students to apply the design cycle and develop solutions for problems encountered in their world. The traditional core subject areas of English (Language A) math, science, and social studies (humanities) round out the middle school curriculum.

If this proposed feeder pattern is what the majority of the families in the Mandarin Immersion Program at Bergeson want to have District officials consider seriously, we need to show them the level of our interest and support. If you are in support of the proposed feeder pattern that includes Carl Hankey Middle School and Capistrano Valley High School, please show your support by clicking on the link below no later than Monday, December 14th at midnight:

I'm in Support of the Proposed Carl Hankey / CVHS Feeder Pattern

If you would like to voice your concern over the proposed sites or have any questions please email me at president@friendofmip.com. As we progress through the District’s site selection process, we want to make sure our MIP Community voice is heard, that all parties are informed, and that we use all the information and feedback at our disposal to help the District make the final decision that is best for the program.

I apologize for the last minute notice and rushed timeframe for this, but our understanding is that we need to make our voices heard regarding this potential proposed Middle School/High School feeder pattern as soon as possible to ensure that it is taken into consideration in conjunction with other school site selection decisions for other programs that are being made in the very near future. For more information about the Middle School/High School site selection process to date as well as more information about the International Baccalaureate programs at Carl Hankey Middle School and Capistrano Valley High School, please attend our parent meeting scheduled for Monday, December 14th at 7:15am in P-29 (the portable on the back playground next to the Computer Lab). We know this is an early time, but because of the need for immediate action with the District and scheduled musical performances on campus we had limited options. For those who are not able to attend, this presentation will be made available via Periscope.

Reach out to people you know in the program and ask them to review this information and show their support as soon as possible. The more MIP community support we have to show the district the better bargaining power we’ll have to try and make this happen.

Thanks as always for your continued support and I’m so excited we’re on our way to making the Mandarin Immersion Program a K-12 program for our scholars.
Ami Barrett

FoMIP Executive Board President

Other Resources:

Carl Hankey K-8: https://chhawks.schoolloop.com/
Capo Valley High School: http://www.cvhs.com/
CVHS IB Program: http://cvhs.schoolloop.com/file/1222839231177/1187...