At Gateway School of Language and Culture, students as young as kindergartners can learn Mandarin Chinese.
It's a unique program that has support from parents.
"The bilingual education is a way to kind grow the student the young people's brains at a time they most able to receive language," Said Ryan Witt a parent of a Gateway student.
But now West Ada School District is saying Zàijiàn, that mean goodbye in Mandarin, to the program. They are phasing it out by not accepting new students at the elementary level, and not continuing the mandarin immersion program at the middle school level. A district spokesmen says they couldn't make the numbers work. Saying by the time students reach middle school. There's not enough interest. Plus West Ada administrators also say it's hard finding fluent Chinese speakers as teachers.
But some parents say the program is under promoted.
"I think they need to look deeper at the resources that are available to the instructors and students at Gateway," Said Ryan.
Concerned parents have asked to appear on the school board agenda to discuss at next week's meeting,
but school officials say nothing has been set for them at this time.
In a memo to parents, The district says it does plan to continue to offerMandarin classes at Renaissance High School.
