East Bay elementary school parents fight to save Spanish duel immersion program

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KGO) -- Parents in Walnut Creek are calling on Gov. Newsom to help save the Spanish dual immersion program at Bancroft Elementary School.

The Mt. Diablo Unified School District is planning to phase out the program and move it. It is the only one in Walnut Creek.

"We're very upset and sad that they're making this decision," said parent Ana Maria Nongo.

Some parents are not happy about the plan.

"We launched a petition. We've gotten over 550 signatures of our petition," said parent Elizabeth Silva.

Since the Spanish dual language program started at Bancroft Elementary School in 2014, hundreds of students have gone through the program.

"There's about 350 kids in the dual immersion program from kindergarten to 5th grade. We have our second grader in the program. We're hoping to enroll our TK student starting in the fall," said Silva.

Over the next five years, the Spanish immersion program at Bancroft Elementary would phase out and move to Woodside Elementary, 2 miles away in Concord.

"This is such a good program. We shouldn't be moving it. We should be expanding it," said parent Josh Newland.

The move would not affect students currently enrolled in the language program.

The school district says the move is necessary for several reasons -- including overcrowding at Bancroft, transfers impacting foothill middle school, English learners at Bancroft not performing well, and a lack of space for aftercare.

The district sent parents two letters, one on Jan. 28 and another on Wednesday, March 4 explaining their rationale. We asked the school superintendent about that.

"We have to do something about enrollment at that particular school and this makes sense because of the feeder pattern. It goes into a school where students can continue to develop their language," said Dr. Adam Clark, Superintendent of Mt. Diablo Unified School District. "I know that it is an inconvenience for folks. I do empathize for the families who are inconvenienced by it. In the big picture, I'm trying to balance a half billion-dollar budget and not do any layoffs, not close any schools."

Parent say they are calling upon the Governor to intervene and to push back against the plan to move the dual immersion program from their elementary school.

"We are doing everything we can to get this overturned," said Silva.