“All the parents couldn’t believe it; we’re overjoyed,” said Kumiko Yoshitsugu Anicich, whose daughter will enroll next year. “We had been writing on Facebook and the Japanese version of Facebook, posting everywhere . . . our scream of joy and thank you so much for your support.”
Japanese joins Spanish, Armenian, Korean, Italian and German FLAG elementary school programs. Glendale was awarded $2.4 million in federal grants in September that will provide for Spanish curriculum at Toll Middle School and Korean at another school by 2013.
Japanese program supporters had been petitioning district officials for much of the year and were able to provide enough commitment to bring district administrators on board.
“We would not go ahead with it if we were not confident we were going to have enough students for a class,” said Joanna Junge, who oversees the FLAG curriculum as Glendale’s director of special projects, intercultural education and professional development. “Credentialed teachers are expressing an interest for applying for the teaching program . . . it’s very exciting.”
A cadre of French parents have also begun gauging interest in a French program.
“They don’t have numbers,” Junge said. “We’re waiting. We’ll see.”
Glendale Unified was named the 2009 bilingual District of the Year, a Presidential Award given by the California Assn. for Bilingual Education. Board members were scheduled to present the FLAG program to the California School Boards Assn. in San Diego today.
Japanese will follow the Korean model where instruction begins 50-50 in English and foreign language throughout the program. Spanish and other languages begin at 90% foreign language instruction in kindergarten and decreases at every grade level.
