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The Redwood City School District is expanding the popular Mandarin bilingual program as part of a growth plan for Orion Alternative School.
That decision comes after families lobbied the district to accommodate a number of students placed on waiting lists for the Mandarin Immersion program at Orion next school year.
During its regular meeting on May 14, the district board unanimously approved the Orion plan, which includes expanding the language immersion program to three transitional kindergarten classrooms starting in the 2025-26 academic year. The third class will be located in a former technology lab at the school.
According to a report to the board from District Superintendent John Baker, the expansion will cost $300,000 for the 2025-26 fiscal year to cover expenses such as hiring an additional teacher, another instructional aide, and converting the tech lab.
Meghan O’Reilly-Green, among the many parents who called for the program’s expansion, praised the district’s decision.
“The Mandarin Immersion program produces stellar results with scores nearly equivalent to (high-performing district school) North Star Academy,” O’Reilly-Green said in an email to the Pulse. “We are very glad that the district has ruled to expand the program.”
According to a parents’ group and the district earlier this year, the immersion program received 56 applications for 40 transitional kindergarten seats in 2025-26, while 25 families sought 19 kindergarten spots.
The language program began in the 2015-16 school year with one class of 26 students and has since grown to approximately 300 children, serving TK-through-eighth-grade students across the Orion and Kennedy Middle School campuses, according to the district.
Orion currently serves about 500 students but has a capacity of 728, according to the district. But the school’s enrollment has been projected to fall to 357 in 2033-34. During that span, the districtwide enrollment, which is currently more than 6,400 with a capacity of 10,902, is forecast to decline to 5,302.
Depending on enrollment, the Orion plan also calls for potentially adding a third kindergarten class for the Mandarin program, beginning in 2026-27, due to the expansion in TK. Each TK class can serve up to 20 students while a kindergarten room has a capacity for 28, according to Baker’s report.
In his report, Baker noted that the growth plan process at Orion started a year ago in response to the steady enrollment increase in the Mandarin immersion program. Another program at Orion, the Parent Co-Op, has also generated considerable demand from the community.
“Over the course of the past year, the Orion Growth Plan Committee — comprising dedicated parents, staff and school leaders — engaged in a comprehensive process to study, discuss and imagine the future of Orion Alternative Elementary School,” Baker said in the report. “As families continued to express interest in Orion Alternative, it became clear that we needed a long-term plan to ensure the school could accommodate this growth while remaining fiscally responsible and programmatically strong.”
The outcome “honored community voices,” district board President Mike Wells said during the May 14 meeting. “It respected fiscal constraints. It presented a reasonably short-term (and) long-term roadmap …, and then it reflected our commitment to quality, innovation (and) sustainability.”
However, Wells wants to ensure that classrooms are used efficiently and effectively as the plan unfolds.
“Classroom utilization is something that we should just check in on,” he said. “Are we using staff and space in a way that’s aligning with our goals for sustainability and equity across RCSD?”
Also key is ensuring access to what Orion has to offer for families with a language barrier or other disadvantages, Wells said. The school intends to do outreach in that regard, Baker said at the meeting.
The Orion plan keeps the Mandarin program and Parent Co-Op programs on that campus, Baker said in his report. However, the Child Development Center, Odyssey, Catalyst and Specialized Learning programs currently at Orion will relocate to other district campuses.
“Overall, in this plan, we are not just solving for one year; we are creating a roadmap for the future of this campus, these programs and the students and families they serve,” he said. “We are also working within constraints. We must remain financially responsible to our community, and we must ensure that all RCSD schools continue to receive the resources they need to succeed.”
Wow! Can’t wait to welcome new families into this trail blazing, high-performing program!