A San Jose school district is considering reopening a campus it previously closed thanks to a successful dual language immersion program.
Declining enrollment has school districts across California, including San Jose’s Alum Rock Union Elementary School District (ARUSD), facing the prospect of closing schools. ARUSD’s Ben Painter Elementary School was on the list of schools slated to potentially close due to low enrollment, but demand for its Vietnamese dual language immersion program ballooned this fall.
“This year we have every classroom full,” Painter Elementary Principal Dr. Joseph Manluco said. “We have kids in every classroom with a large and growing Vietnamese dual language immersion program.”
There are 420 students at Painter Elementary, a number that might bode well for other campuses that are currently shut down.
“We do have other campuses within the district that are exceeding enrollment, where they need more room,” ARUSD Superintendent Dr. Marnie Hazelton said. “We are working with committees along with our board members and a local real estate agency to see if it is a viable option to reopen some of these campuses.”
Pew Research estimates San Jose has the largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam at roughly 150,000.
Painter Elementary’s program is the second largest Vietnamese dual language immersion program in Northern California. The idea is to combine quality academics with a second language. But there are plenty of non-Vietnamese American students on campus.
“We have students in here that are becoming trilingual or even quadrilingual,” Manluco said.
