HADLEY — After state Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester put the brakes on a local Chinese-language charter school’s expansion plan, the school will ask for a formal overturn of the decision.
Leaders from the recently expanded Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School will make their case to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education at its Malden headquarters Tuesday morning at 8:30.
Along with the school’s board of trustees, executive director and principal, more than 14 school community members will make the two-hour trip to advocate for building a new high school and doubling the student body. Some of them will drive individually, while others will travel together in a bus leaving from Hadley.
When Chester denied the school’s attempt to expand, he cited that it has not provided “compelling evidence to revisit the decision” before the school’s charter is up for renewal after the 2016-17 academic year. But Richard Alcorn, the school’s executive director, said Tuesday in a press release that the “student body has grown steadily since it was chartered in 2007.” The school’s request asked to increase maximum enrollment from 584 to 986 students.
Located in Hadley, the Pioneer Valley Chinese school serves students from 39 communities in three western Massachusetts counties. The school says it is the “only Chinese language and culture immersion charter school in Massachusetts” and serves a “racially, ethnically and economically diverse” student body, according to the press release.
During an April interview with the Gazette, Alcorn said that while the school opened under a charter to host kindergarten through eighth grade, its vision was always to be a K-12 school. He said no other area schools were prepared to take on the high-proficiency Chinese speaking students who graduated from the eighth-grade program. The school was awarded a charter amendment in 2013 to add Grades 9 to 12 and increase enrollment by 284, but school officials say the current high school enrollment is too small and the building is not sufficient for growth.
Alcorn also said in April that in order for a new high school building to be financially feasible, it must be permitted to enroll more students.
“PVCICS offers a specialized curriculum and a window to another culture that is otherwise unavailable to other western Massachusetts students,” said Principal Kathleen Wang. “We are proud of our accomplishments and our students’ academic growth.”
The school reports that in 2015 it was named top-performing high school among Massachusetts public schools by the Boston Business Journal, based on its performance that year in all three MCAS subject areas — English language arts, math and science.
Additionally, the school earned a Confucius Classroom of the Year Award in December. The award is goes to 10 schools across the world for excellence in teaching and learning, curriculum, cultural richness, community engagement and extracurricular activities.
Alcorn added that the Chinese school fills a unique niche in public education.
Highlighting the Chinese-language charter school’s success, parents have submitted letters to Gov. Charlie Baker asking for his support in the expansion effort. Many of these parents will attend Tuesday.
“Massachusetts prides itself on academic excellence, innovation and diversity,” said Alcorn. “Our school has been held up as a model of all three specialties and we would hope the state would celebrate our success and support our plans to build a robust high school for the families we serve.”
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.