Hello interested Japanese immersion parents,
As you know, PPS is currently working to implement a set of boundary adjustments and program reconfigurations district-wide. These adjustments are intended to manage significant enrollment growth and imbalances in programming resources across the district.
This is difficult and important work for the future of the district. You can find more information on this initiative at the DBRAC web site.
As you also might have heard, there is a possibility that the Japanese immersion program could be part of this change. Right now very little is known about when, how, or under what conditions PPS might propose a change in siting or configuration to our program. Richmond PTA and Oya No Kai are tracking the developments closely and will continue to keep you updated as we know more.
We know this causes concern for many of our parents, and many have asked what we as a community should be doing right now.
Last week, we held to two informal meetings to gather feedback and answer questions about the process. Based on these meetings and what we know today, we are asking parents to consider the following:
1) If you wish to express your perspective to DBRAC and the board, the best way to do this, at this time, is by sending an email to DBRAC (at [email protected]) and copy the Board of Superintendents (at [email protected]).
2) Please be courteous and respectful in your communications. DBRAC and PPS are working on challenging issues. They will find fact-based and reasoned arguments most constructive and persuasive. This set of changes affect thousands of students and we believe we must approach this process as a member of the whole community.
3) Read this summary of our parent perspectives in putting together your comments. This document was drafted by PTA and Oya No Kai based on our parent meetings, and are intended to represent what we believe are the most important and widely held convictions among our parent community.
If you have any questions at all or would like to be added to this mailing list, please feel free to email us here.
Thanks for everything you do to make this program great!
Richmond PTA and Oya No Kai
Jason Lathrop, Sara Deluca, and Jeff Hopper