The Lafayette Parish School Board voted on Wednesday to shutter the Chinese immersion program at Cpl. Michael Middlebrook Elementary School, bringing the language program to an end after 14 years.
The board voted 4-3 to close the program, which will cease operation at the end of this school year. Board members David LeJeune, Britt Latiolais, Hannah Smith Mason and Jeremy Hidalgo voted to close the program. Board members Kate Bailey Labue, who had a family member speak in favor of maintaining the program, and Chad Desormeaux abstained from the vote.
The move was framed as a cost savings measure; on the meeting agenda, school officials noted the program had less than 70 students enrolled in grades K-5 and closing the program would save the district over $510,000 annually.
In a Tuesday interview, Superintendent Francis Touchet, Jr. said eight teachers were employed to teach the program’s 62 children.
The board voted to shutter the program in the face of overwhelming opposition from students in the program and their parents.
Current magnet academy students will be allowed to remain at Middlebrook to attend regular classes for the 2024-2025 school year but will not be provided with bus transportation, according to the school board agenda. The move will give families time to enter the magnet academy lottery for the 2025-2026 school year; the lottery for next school year has already been held.
Kindergarten and first grade students currently in the Mandarin Chinese immersion program will be offered any current opening spots in other immersion magnet academies in the district, the board’s agenda said.
The district’s Mandarin Chinese immersion program was launched in 2010 and offered students the opportunity to spent at least 60% of their instructional day speaking Mandarin Chinese, while also learning about the culture.
The program was limited to elementary school, while the district’s French and Spanish immersion programs have options through high school, with language immersion continuing at Paul Breaux Middle School and Lafayette High School at the higher levels, according to district websites.
The board also voted 5-4 to move the middle school French and Spanish immersion programs from Paul Breaux to Scott Middle on Wednesday night.