Thursday, February 2, 2012
Language program is the only of its kind in the city
Students craving a lesson in culture need to look no further than Bard Early College High School, the only school in Newark that offers Chinese language classes. The hour-long class, taught by John Weinstein, instructs Bard freshmen on the nuances of Mandarin, a dialect of Chinese typically spoken in the northern part of the country. It also offers teenagers an invaluable lesson in culture. Watch the video above for more information.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Will 'boutique' schools be approved? Department of Education to release new class of charters on Friday.
Millburn and nearby districts will learn on Friday the decision on two charter schools that would teach bilingual immersion, the state Department of Education said. Sen. Richard Codey has called this new class of approvals “a watershed moment” in education as charter schools try to move into suburbs with high-performing school districts. The state Department of Education has before it 55 applications for new charters, including the two Mandarin-immersion schools that would recruit students from Millburn and neighboring districts. The decisions have been cloaked in secrecy. “They’ve been closed mouth about it, at least around me,” said Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-27th District) on Thursday. Jasey has been leading efforts in Trenton to …
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
McDermott says he might not have signed had he known he was supporting a charter school.
Millburn’s former mayor, Tom McDermott, signed a petition to support one of the Mandarin-immersion charter schools, but says he didn’t realize that that’s what he was supporting. “It was definitely a little bit of a misunderstanding,” said McDermott, who added that if he’d known it was a charter school, he “might think differently” about it. “At this point, knowing more about it, and knowing more about charter schools, I might reconsider that,” he said. McDermott’s name is listed on a petition within the application for the Hanyu International Academy. The Hanyu International Academy would be a two-way immersion Mandarin/English public school, according to its application. It identifies an empty office park off Route 10 as the school’s …
Monday, May 9, 2011
Princeton school officials among those talking about the cost of charter schools to school districts.
Updated, 9:30 a.m. Tuesday School leaders from four neighboring school districts gathered in Millburn on Monday night to learn more about charter schools – a divisive issue in New Jersey that now concerns even high-performing districts like Millburn, which is faced with two Mandarin-immersion charters seeking approval. “It’s a storm and it’s a big storm now,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. “And it’s not a perfect storm.” Strickland was part of a panel brought together at Millburn High School to provide school boards from Millburn, Livingston, Union and South Orange-Maplewood with information to take back to their communities. Millburn will follow up this meeting an agenda item for …
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Mandarin-language schools would siphon funding, the districts say; founders of the two schools say the charters will provide parents with choices.
Charter schools are supposed to provide alternatives to failing schools, but increasingly they are being proposed in high-ranking districts, such as Maplewood, where the proposed charter school would include service to West Orange students. Residents will have an opportunity to learn more at a forum on Monday, May 9, at 7:45 p.m. at Millburn High School. Two Mandarin-language charter schools have applied for approval: Charter school founders say they are not unhappy with the school districts, but they want to offer children a chance to become fluent in Chinese at an early age. Livingston Republican councilwoman Deborah Shapiro is a founding partner of the Hanyu International Academy Charter in Livingston. “To compete in the global economy…
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Two schools have applied to open Mandarin immersion programs for K-2 that could pull students and money away from the district.
The Millburn School District is closely watching two applications for charter schools that would offer Mandarin immersion for elementary school students, potentially luring students away from the district at a cost to taxpayers. Millburn Superintendent James Crisfield told the Board of Education and the audience at its meeting Monday night he is planning an information session May 9 with other districts that could be affected by the charter schools. “So we can all understand what happens if one or both of these charter schools is approved by Trenton,” he said, adding that he is inviting officials from districts that already have charter schools to hear about the lessons they learned. "The way charter schools are funded could have a …
Annemarie Czaykowski
11:49 am on Thursday, February 2, 2012
I applaud you, Mr. Weinstein. That is a progressive step to take. When my son was in high school in 2003, they offered French, Spanish and Latin. Same languages I was offered in 1966. I sent him to learn Japanese outside of school. more ›