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Happy New Year! We've received excellent news. The early Mandarin Bilingual start program has been given a preliminary go-ahead subject to passing budget approval in the spring. The VSB approved the following motion at its meeting Monday night: “The Board approves implementation and start up of the Early Start Mandarin Bilingual Program for September 2010 and requests that staff begin meaningful consultations with the school community of any school recommended for location of the program and report back to Committee III the results of this consultation and any additional cost issues. In approving this motion the Board cautions that this program will be subject to the same review as all other VSB programs and services during the 2010-11 budget process in March and April 2010.” The location has not been decided but the district earlier recommended John Norquay elementary. We plan to continue conversations with the VSB about location in the hopes of finding a more central yet accessible located school. However due to space constraints at many schools and increased space required for all day kindergarten, the VSB has limited options as to location of the program. Please see the following article in the Vancouver Sun: While this is positive news, this is only a preliminary approval. The BCPFM-Vancouver Committee feels that, as a committee and as parents, we need to continue to lobby the provincial government for support (write your MLAs) and as well, look to ways that we might be able to fundraise for the program in the future. We will continue these efforts and will to for support and ideas from parents on these two fronts. Thank you for your interest and support of this program. Sincerely, BCPFM - Vancouver Committee |