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Parent Information Meeting January 2025

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Information meeting for prospective IIA families.

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my name is executive director here at IA and I am going to be joined by our principal uh Mr Grant schmit and we're gonna give you a little overview about Irvine International Academy our programs what what it kind of looks like day-to-day to go to school here um and then you know a little bit about how our students are doing academically curriculum all of that at the end if you have any questions feel free to let us know we'll also go over a little bit of the application and enrollment process as well so um so again if you have any question questions um we'll have plenty of time for question and answer at the end of the the presentation you do also have mentioned this Zoom you can probably hear me but like I was saying we have a bunch of people on Zoom uh watching online as well so we man to make sure that they can hear and see as well um but I'm gonna turn it over to start uh with Mr Schmidt welcome everyone uh my name is Grant schmit I am the principal here at IIA um it's actually my first year here I'm a little bit background myself it's my 18th year in education um 4 year I served as a principal enroll in Heights before years I was an assistant principal for 2 years before that and then I taught elementary middle and high school in different parts so um we're excited that you're all here we're excited about the program that we have and that we're building um and so let's go ahead and jump into some of the information so 1 of the questions that comes up is what is a charter school so really what a charter school is is it's a public institution a public school support by public funds just like your local school districts the difference is still is that we are not tied to any school district we're really independently independently rare so we're not bound by a lot of the same um regulations or certain things that traditional Public School we hire our Personnel we design our curriculum we open our program um what this does is it gives us the flexibility to make adjustments to fit the needs of our students instead love trying to you know you have a bigger School District it's going to be a program that you're trying to fit all your schools we have a lot more flexibility to tweak and adjust um our program and do things a lot faster Pace to really um to the student leads um 1 thing about Charter Schools is that they are designed to have a you know there needs to be some type of focus either it's the student focused or certain program obviously at our school it is able to move in school that is our we need to focus as a charter school um and that's a school of choice we do have to admit any student who does apply um however there are times where certain grade levels certain articles will be full but when that happens um we you conduct a lottery of those openings so there'll be more information on that later on that's kind of just a general background on charter schools um so we do go from TK through 8th grade our TK program is a half day program for TK so there's early burden late bird class our kindergarten is a full day program and then obviously first through eighth graders of full traditional day as well um we are we are authorized by the Orange County Department of Education to speak to our authorizer in fact they'll be here in about months to give our annual visit and our school did open in August 2021 so this is currently our fourth year of operation uh right now our enrollment is looking about my right now is about 530 students we're looking at next year possibly around 600 students so we are kind of getting to capacity in school um kind of from the perspective about 2 years ago I think this goes around 200 students so we are growing very rapidly but we are at that point where we are going to be reaching our capacity for your site uh this is a little bit about our mission our vision so um we do we'll create Pro uh Progressive learning environment for our students preparing them to be lifelong Learners and engage Global Citizens and really we do that through our men and dual immersion program and our steam program if you're not familiar with steam it's science technology engineering arts and math and maths and so our steam curriculum is Project Lead the Way if you're familiar with that and if you're not that's okay uh but a lot of our student is a lot of Project based learning so the kids learn about science then they learn um how to conduct experiments they conduct experiments they go into things like coding and they kind of develop from there so and then our as they get older we do have engineering classes where they kind of design and build their own robots um and our obviously with our Mandarin dual merger program I'll go with a little bit more later on but those are the 2 unique aspects that we uh those that we work to accomplish this vision so 1 of the things too that we also want to is that our students have a social emotional intelligence curiosity um it's not enough to just memorize but we want them to have that love for learning we want them to ask questions um conduct experiments solve problems um work out conflicts there's a lot of the different things that we do in our school too with our students that's really kind of the foundation of our structure mission so when you look at our educational model our TK through fifth grade students 50% of the days in English and 50% of the days in Mandarin um and students received poor content in both languages so what that means is that the 50% Mandarin isn't just a mandarin instruction they'll also get math instruction to also get science instruction and really that's where the dual immersion programs really Thrive is when students are receiving similar content in 2 different languages it next to different parts of the brain um to have that people love deeper level of understanding um and so we do have a lot of students who do have a mandarin background we also students coming in with zero management background so we have um different programs through our ELD in the MLD um and Luna development to work with our students to work with the need to actually support in English we provide that if we need to actually support men and we provide that so it's not as if they're going to be going into a mandarin class with no support at all for a student coming in with no Manner and background there is going it is going to be a little bit of a a change and they don't have any manner but we work with them directly to teachers are very understanding on they work with the students they love on the students um so but the big thing about is that it's not just Mandarin instruction like Mandarin language it's also content in Mandarin as well um we also they do have PE we do have weekly music and steam classes as well and that's tk2 fifth grade when they get in the school they do have daily PD and then they do have electives where steam is a part of that elective um the difference in Middle Schools is not 50/50 um it is a little bit less they do have a but they do have a daily Mandarin class um and we're also looking at um looking to add a possible classes for advanced pandemics next year but if you look at the the model that's kind of the general structure of it as they spend half their day in English they spend in Mandarin so they'll start with 1 teacher and then there's there's a group of students who start with an English teacher a group of students who start with the Mandarin teacher and then the schedule they'll switch so um they'll switch so you have 2 groups of students who have the same teachers just opposite someone will have mannered in the mornings after that and then we'll do English first and then that's kind of how the program is itself um so they do learn um looked by Chinese um and a lot of this kind of this talks about what I was talking about um what they sow these are the goals of our program though uh we want to do high high levels of language proficiency and better see in both languages so it's not just memorization and regurgitation it's really that literacy component so a lot of what they do is based off literacy they do a lot of reading do a lot of they do a lot of um reading out loud and so there's a there's a lot of practice in that and what we found to that the students who do even the students who don't have a level uh background in Mandarin they do Thrive as well uh which will go over our our student achievement a little bit um they develop an appreciation for understanding of diverse cultures obviously being a man in dual emergence school that you learn a lot about the Chinese culture uh what's unique about our school we don't have just students with the Chinese background we have a lot of students with different backgrounds different cultures so there's a lot of opportunities for students to have that experience um the world is becoming a global Society so it helps them kind of Meet the the upcoming need for that um and I get a goal the goal is for the students to be bilingual biliterate by the time they leave our school right and then obviously with learning multiple languages there's career um advantages that come with that and again meets the challenges of a a normal society this is a curriculum that we to implement I mean it's it's it's pretty straightforward our wonders curriculum for ELA is kind of the standard for California and English language arts um when we go into 63 did study scene which is kind of the extension of that for the older students we do use Singapore Math um for mathematics science we do twig and being science live the reason why we use those is a lot heavily there's a lot of project opportunities for the students so not just memorizing facts but it's the application that they're actually doing instead of this memorizing social studies um it's integrated into a waters for the younger students we are looking at digital recognition for that in the future our social studies that uses TCI bring learning alive and then for Mandarin we're currently using better emerging um the curriculum at better Chinese but we've been conducting some pilot this year with our teachers a variety of different Mandarin curriculum and that's 1 of the first things coming in that was in need of the school was to kind of um build up the curriculum for our staff so our assistant principal at Tiff n Jiang um she works specifically with the manner program program she's been working with the group of teachers with different curriculum to find the curriculum that the teachers really enjoy that really um that the students are able to learn the most with so we're working we're going to be continually developing the vendor we're feeling and because man schools are relatively new in the grand scheme of things it's not as if you can you don't have the curriculum choices that you have in other subjects so um our teachers do put in a lot of work in terms of design like curriculum so and uh 1 thing that we do obviously as a public school all our students in grades 3 and above um participate in the Caps testing that's our state testing um we'll be going over the test results in a little bit um and 1 thing that we do starting in kindergarten is we connect I already testing uh if you're not familiar with I already what it is is at the beginning of the year the students take the Benchmark a diagnostic the diagnostic kind of tells you where they're skills are at where their math skills are at kind of this highlights okay they're strong in this area it may be a little weak in this area their teachers use that data to really kind of Drive their instruction in the class they develop groups they do small groups they work with the groups to kind of give that's targeted intervention to our students and then they do benchmarks to drop the year the track the students progress so um it really allows for teachers to get insight this shows instead of just saying oh I think they're it really gives that country information and then I also get sent home to the parents and read a few months so that way parents are informing how their students are learning as well we have a similar type of program called love with learning and that's kind of the same thing but it's for so what we have I already does our English language arts and math um level learning does it for me so we have the same type of program for that um and then starting next year we'll be using a dyslexia screener for students um in groups keep from 2 that's something that's new coming to California but it goes into effect next year um as a requirement for all schools all right so that's a lot of just general information I want to hand it over to started today and so kind of share more a little bit about how our school's doing thank you principal smitter um so 1 really exciting thing that um we learned this year is that our schools um actually last year had some of the highest test scores in Orange County for The Cask test so um if you look in comparison um to our surrounding iusd schools um our students about 89% of our students met or exceeded the standards in ela 82% in math and 87% in science um and again looking around Orange counties um those were at the very top compared to other Orange County school districts other iusd schools um and other charter schools in the area so um 1 iusd school we beat us in 1 area and 1 other Charter School beat us in 1 area uh but other than that all 3 areas combined we beat everyone so so our students even though they're getting 50% of their instruction in Mandarin and 50% of their instruction in English there's still achieving really high results um even on tests that are given entirely in English um and so they are a to compete with any other students in any other schools in science in math in English and a lot of that is um like principal schmider said having that core content instruction in both languages really helps to solidify with their learning so they might be learning about photosynthesis in English and then later on that day they see those same Concepts but they see them in Mandarin and so they're able to really kind of look at what they're learning um through multiple different lenses and then to with the steam incorporating Project based learning Hands-On learning with that so they're kind of getting to see all of those different concepts in 3 different ways Hands-On in Mandarin and then in English and I think that has definitely been what's really led to our students really understanding that content and being able to really do well um with all of their content so the next slide just sort of shows a comparison of how we did compared to other all of the highest achieving school districts and charter schools here in Orange County um so definitely our students again really performing well um in their different subject areas so a little bit about our daily program um again uh we have AMPM transitional kindergarten classes full day kindergarten um that again full day first through 8th grade Wednesdays we have early dismissal for all of our grade levels and that's so that our teachers can have collaboration time we can do professional development um and our teachers can have that planning time so um so students do get out a little bit earlier on when Wednesdays for next year our first day of school is going to be the August 13th our last day of school June 4th and we do offer um before and after school child care for next year so um so we partner and I think on a on an upcoming slide um we do partner with an outside organization to provide paid child care here on campus um from 6 oclock or sorry 6 30 in the morning till 6 PM um depending on how much you need it um you can just get after school child care and give you 4 and after school you can do 3 days a week 5 days a week so there's all of those different um opportunities right here on campus we also are uh starting next year and after school enrichment um and support programs um that will be for all students um and if you sign up for some things there will be different clubs for students so you might have a um a robotics Club Lego Club kind of rotating throughout the year um different uh other enrichment opportunities sport homework club um English and Mandarin language development for students who might need extra help with that um intervention music all of those different clubs and enrichment opportunities will be offered um for an hour after school um free of charge so certain students um you can sign up for different clubs different activities to be part of different sports um and those will be offered after school um until about 4:30 and then again if you need additional child care or your student doesn't want to be part of whatever clubs or different things that are being offered um we do have that childcare opportunity as well um from the end of school again until 6 oclock at night um so a lot of different options for extra additional enrichment or other activities that your students can do outside of the regular school day during the school day and outside of the school day we also do different competitions we just had um our manure and Masters competition which is sort of like the Mandarin spelling bee uh but we also have a compete in the regular spelling bee um and our students go on to participate in the County Spelling me um and hopefully in the state spelling bee and um we have math kangaroo so we have a lot of different ways that students um can be involved in different competitions and then we do have a lot of different events on campus so we had a huge mid-autumn Festival um back in the fall we had student performances different games and activities uh pretty much our our whole all of our families came all students came it was a great experience we also had our winner concert where each class performed um some different songs and then we actually had some solo uh student performance musical performances as well and then coming up we have our um Lunar New Year event after school next Wednesday so we have a lot of ways where students can get involved families can get involved and we really try to build that school Community um and give a lot of opportunities for parents to get together and and hang out and watch their students and for students to be able to get together and do things that get them excited um and get them really engaged in our school program we also offer um different specialty classes so um weekly our students all participate um K through 5 scheme class where they get to do those Project Lead the Way hands on activities um our students all participate in weekly music class and then again physical education um in Middle School we do have a variety of different electives for our students um steam music we have leadership engineering speech and debate art class so a lot of different ways that our Middle School students and they can choose different electives each year so they can kind of experience a lot of different things or if they're really into music they can kind of use feel music as their elective and and kind of stick with that and build upon them we also have very high standards here um for student Behavior student engagement and we use what's called PBIS positive behavior interventions and supports so we want to make sure that our students are learning engaged and actively being part of our school Community um and we do that through a positive reward system so um we provide supports when students need it but also a lot of recognition and rewards when students are showing appropriate behavior being engaged in their classes engaged in different activities on campus so some of the key components of that are we really set up at the beginning of the year with that good behavior looks like students will talk about it in classes they'll kind of talk about what is human behavior look like class on the playground on a field trip and make sure that all of the students understand what that positive behavior and what our expectations are um again teaching what our expectations are through different lessons in their classes and then we really celebrate our students so we have monthly PBIS Awards assemblies where if students are exemplifying those character traits you have a character trait each month certain students are really showing a great example of those different characters um I think responsibility is this month uh then they can get a reward they'll get recognized at the assembly parents get to come and see their students get recognized but we also have a reward system where students throughout day can get um Panda tickets and then we have a student store and they can go and they can redeem those for different prizes we all know kids love stuff and toys and candy and things like that uh to the greatest way to get them um to kind of start to learn that that doing good things gets rewarded um is we provide them with those rewards and allow them to go kind of shopping at the student store more of those uh Panda tickets that they that they earned so and then we also collect data on student Behavior so that we can see is there sort of an uptake or an uptick of a certain Behavior around campus and then we can address it very quickly um and make sure that any kind of negative behaviors don't continue on canvas we address them very quickly so some of our additional educational programs as a public school we do offer um programs for students who may need additional support um so we have have um students who are part of our special education program students on IEPs we provide them with all of the supports that they need um based on what is written in their IEP so we have um Technologies speech and language Services um other interventions that we do provide those um those students and families and then we do actually we have a very high level of um students who English is is not their first language um we have a lot of students coming for Mandarin as their primary language but we do have students who come with a variety of different languages um from Russian spy a lot of different languages so we English learner support um our English learner students do take the elpac which is the English learner test and then we have an English language development coordinator who provide supports for our students so that they can make sure that they are fluent um and become fluent in English and then um our gifted and talented program our students this year and if your student comes in after a third grade uh but next year when they're here we'll take um a gait test um either the SAT or the edmat and then those results will be provided to parents to the students teacher to help to um differentiate and provide them enrichment activities in class and we will also have some enrichment activities and um clubs for those students after school um so they can do more higher level projects and possibly go on some different field trip activities and and things to help um with that enrichment and now I am going to hit it over to on to talk about our theme team wow well thank you for coming and those on the zoom my name is an or an PTO secretary I'm gonna tell you we are what we do why we're doing it so we are internet Urban International Academy parent teacher organization similar to the PTA except with 1 employment PTO and we basically made up of all volunteers and you either volunteered on time or we donate money to support the teachers supported schools for example for supplies um field trips we try to supplement the money or field trips with all the students they go to you know different um places like for the lower kids is forms a lot not Discovery queue or I think upgrade go to so we're in Big Bear my son a couple of days ago thank you so I come up with this I can conserve basically that's what PTO is about we help with school the icing on the cake The Decorator with decorator yeah we have a parents that's really really good decorating we we form a like a a little Community we helpful volunteers we set a good example for our kids because it's not just learning ABC and 1 2 3 you want to get back to your Society see Volunteers in network you met a lot of great parents and you can talk about your kids so a lot of those activity that Dr Curry mentioned like the Autumn festivals uh Chinese food calendar Chinese New Year next week is a chance for parents and students to come together and Network so we like a family we grew we double the size I have 2 kids here we were here since year 2021 since the beginning and we saw this school just double in um in size in the short years and you can see our caps 40 we can learn both English and Chinese and not using you know that losing this the grave compared to other I mean some some parents are concerned that other Chinese I I think it helps your left and right brain kind of connect the other electrons we also help doing fundraising uh the 1 coming up the big 1 will be made dance May 2nd is going to be open to all not just parents in the school week you know we can invite Neighbors friends grandparents so we can come last year we have Gala and we have you know potential parents that join and come and celebrate our Gala it's a fun racing event but it's also a great way to meet parents um because this is a charter school the staffs are very very you know for the parents we you know listen to our inputs and feedbacks and they will react accordingly I don't think any other school do that um my move move my background both my kids are in Rouen private school before I ate started and when we're looking we're thinking after that that school we go up to third grade after that you have to go back to committees or or look for another private school so when this group started it's actually my label you tell me about this so we like okay my husband doesn't speak any Mandarin I do so in at home I tried to teach them Mandarin but it's hard your husband don't even speak so I was thinking oh 50/50 that's a good split so I wrote them and then I know I found out this is like even better than private school to have more programs and they teach you the curriculum is equivalent to private school and your property tax paperwork you know everybody pay tax here and they have more you know funding the teachers are great and I mean the teacher basically we have to hire more and more because we have more students maybe here but most of them don't really we don't really have a high turnover um staffs that we can hire more people because we have more students to serve so well um I'm glad you guys take the time to research the school for your kids but I can guarantee you this is a great choice or charter school or public funds you can see the cap store online you want to I know some people take pictures I think you can search that in our website the questions of you around I don't know what's the next slide so if after listening to an are interested in applying um here's a little bit about how that works so we have an open enrollment period that's coming up here in the beginning of February uh enrollment is open for a month um and this presentation will be posted online as well so if you uh need a copy and you don't have a picture of it you can just pull it up um but so our open enrollment goes to February 4th March 4th during that time um there's a short application that you'll fill plus they just your name your student's name their grade level um and right now we're accepting applications for all grade levels TK through 8 although we have a limited number of spots in the um grade levels uh 1 through 8 um most of our space is really TK Kinder um because those are you know opening up new classes um but we do have some additional spots in the upper grades and um now this starting this year transitional kindergarten is available for all um 4 year olds so as TK started being implemented it kind of went down in 3 month increments and so this year well this upcoming year is the first year that TK is available for All 4 year olds or any student who turns 4 after September 1st so once you turn in your application then in April we have a lottery because we do have more applications usually for especially some of the different grade levels then we have spots for so we will hold a lot of Lottery you'll um a lottery number kind of stating where you are in that line um and then you may receive a congratulations you have a spot here at IAA you receive a we're still waiting to see if more spots open um so that will kind of go based on those lottery numbers and how much space we have in each grade level um parents who are being offered a spot automatically as soon as we have the lottery in those first spots we'll be notified via email if you are placed on the wait list you'll also be notified with your weight list number and then as space becomes available um then you would receive an email offering you offering your students a spot then once your student has a slot you will get an online um and do an online registration do you enroll your student um here at IA oh yes you have 5 days to accept your spot um once you're offered a spot if you don't accept your spot in those 5 days then we do go on to the next person in the lottery so um so just make sure that you're kind of checking your emails for those notifications um we do have different Lottery preferences um based on 4 different criteria so if for current IA employees um their students do get uh a preference then siblings of students who are already here um we like to make sure that families are able ble to keep their students in the same school so um so siblings get that get the next priority students who live within the Irvine Unified School District boundaries um we have the next priority and then all of their students who are applying to IIA uh are forth on that please so if you have any questions um our answered here tonight you can always Reach Out I think a lot of you guys have already talked to um sci-fi but you can call or email and there's always a lot of information on our website as well and we definitely look forward to welcoming our new students um for the 2025 2026 school year um when school starts in August so now we can open it up to any questions questions 1 simple question for for those slide is just prevented um it's downloadable in their website we'll post we'll post it on the in the website um on the enrollment section so you'll be able to download that and also c 1 is like showing that the era from 2023 to 2024 jump like um 20% before and also for the year so what happened to assuming the Sweden not change so teacher is working so what so we did really tighten up our um our curriculum we also started doing the Core Curriculum um in both Mandarin and and Ela and so kind of having that where students um instead of just getting Mandarin instruction for 50% of the day or actually seeing their math their science um in in Mandarin I believe definitely brought our scores of um quite a bit of really just having 50% of the day where the students are just learning straight man Grant yeah you don't have to no so once you're in you're in um so long as your students stay enrolled the entire time you're in all the way through eighth grade and then uh sorry how big or how many students are um so TK it we have um a 20 to 1 ratio we have 2 adults in each TK class it's actually a 10 to 1 ratio but 20 in each class um and next year we plan to have TK sections so that would be about 8 0 8 0 yeah so 4 TK um we have part of our TK students that will go um from 8:30 to 11:30 or 8:20 to 11:30 from the start of school um just for 3 hours and then we have lunch so both groups of TK have a period um then that morning group gets picked up or again they can be part of that um that after school child care that we have available um and then the second group will come so your student will be mind based on your lottery or your lottery number um to either am or or PM we normally will fill up the am classes first um and then fill up the PM classes that make the number given that makes the number 8 yeah so it's 40 lot 40 AM spots and 40 PM spots Chinese I was not here during that time but I bet and could answer it I was looking around I'm like you yeah you say consideration okay 2 things we can find more teachers that can teach simplifying and we have more materials that's in simplify and their the kids are born here to learn all that Strokes it's easier for them to understand and learn simplified the first year is traditional the second year and on our I think vice principal or assistant principal back then decided she's from Taiwan she's long who decided we should go simplify we're looking at how many billion people that learn simplified versus how many people in traditional but when you're learning like from TK or kindergarten I think it's a simple characters a the same until you get to the harder more complicated words that's when we see a difference between simplifying transition I know some parents still prefer yeah some some parents still prefer traditional I can tell you I learned traditional I I have to admit when I see simple mind on my more strokes and just 20 I wonder if you'll buy 75 but you're right traditional is more meaningful in terms of how they put the characters together but you have to see your kids born live practice English here mainly it's a blessing if they can leave a recognized some Chinese character because we're surrounded by English speaking people but this is a good school that you can at least have sometimes of learning Chinese every day and so send them to Chinese people 3 hours for Weekends I'm sure your kids will appreciate that thanks for your questions so they will learn how to say yes they went through the English character okay because I think that's a understand the character you have to learn but B is more like being right players 1 IP so you're right they have each 1 is but it's simple yeah yeah actually that helps the children pronounce it because they already have so many subjects to learn how many kids preference so we don't actually allow that picking um during the lottery because we basically just fill up the A and classes and then the PM classes um after after the lottery um some parents will kind of kind of work with other parents to see if but as far as for us just to make it fair um we go off of the lottery some a lot of times if you prefer PM most people prefer am so a lot of times if people prefer PM it's an easier switch and follow-ups that what happens on Wednesdays through PMS um so we're kind of right now Wednesdays are AM and PM for TK um next year so that our our teachers can also be part of that collaboration and professional development on Wednesdays most likely both the groups um will be in am um instead of having the AM and PM because we want our our teachers to be able to collaborate during that time I'm in kindergarten we will have 75 to 80 students in kindergarten um right now kindergarten at 75 would be 3 classes of kindergarten 25 for kindergarten and then 20 for TK we have um a teacher and an instructional assistant in every class actually all the way up through fifth grade so there's 2 adults in every class all the way up through fifth grade materials so right now we're using um better Chinese um but like Mr schmitter said we actually are piloting um some different materials this year so um our Mandarin teachers along with our we have an assistant that oversees our Mandarin program um and so they're looking um some of our some of our uh teachers um as far as the better Chinese it for some of our students who are coming in and and without a lot of wandering background um the better Chinese doesn't have as much support materials for them um so we're looking at at at some different curriculum so that we can make sure that we're meeting the needs of all of our students both our high achieving um students who come in um with a background in Mandarin or or who have been in our program all the way through TK um because most of our students if you start start out here in TK um you're learning you're basically learning both languages um from 4 years old on and so you have a much better by the time you're in fifth sixth grade even if you speak English at home um a lot of our students are very fluent um even if they don't have mandarin speaking parents because they've had it for so long um but we do have some students who come in in later grades without strong Heaven Mandarin background um and so we do also have curricula that will actually that will help provide those supports to bring their language skills up even if they uh they enter in um in older grades so long story but um but we are looking at some different curriculums to make sure that we have the best programs that meet the needs of of our students and our teachers here um and have maybe a little bit more robust programs um better Chinese doesn't have a lot of the different material like supplemental materials and things that some of the other programs that our teachers are looking at Chinese extra training supporter support those would be done not so we have um a period during the day where students can get extra supports where they need it or um for those students who don't need extra supports in either English or Mandarin they have time for some additional enrichment so um so we have a part of the day for all of our grade levels where they get into small groups um based on their different levels in English or Chinese um and they're with other students who have who are at those same levels and they receive more um more individualized or small group instruction to help provide them with those supports um or like I said our like our our assistant principal actually does works with some of the students who are high level English and also fluent in Mandarin to provide them with additional enrichment activities above um maybe with their other grade level peers are doing able to mention about a few fifth grade um is it the third class that we have made okay yeah so every class has a teacher and an aide both Mandarin and English so if they are in their Mandarin class they have a mandarin teacher and a mandarin speaking Aid and then another English class they'll have an English speaking teacher and an English speaking and it's full time right full time and for the after school sorry I have a more questions the application um activities is that every so it would depend on the activity so we might have so say they're doing I think we have basketball coming up um so that's it's on my mind but they might have basketball twice a week after school so maybe Tuesdays and Thursdays um so they could either just do the basketball for those Tuesdays and Thursdays or they might also want to do robotics Club Monday and Wednesday so it kind of depend on what activities or they might just be needing a little bit of extra um LD support or MLD support which they could also get after school um depending on the day and 1 last question I saw that there's no 4K 5 there's not um a specific class for art but it is part of their steam class as well as they do do um a lot of art projects and things along with the curriculum um in their regular um both Mandarin and English classes if they're in rtk yeah right so then we will have about 20 additional spots for those students who are coming in at a later time no so it'll be a whole group of students um so say there's hinder a and then a class Kinder bead we also have CND right now so you have 4 digits uh so Kinder a we've switched with Kinder B Kinder B would move over to where that Kinder a plus the whole class spoof so they would still be in class 3 questions first 1 you have that included the demand for based on we will we usually do have a wait list for Kinder uh ntk just because that's all students enter so normally that is the highest demand is for for TK and Kinder um we have had like each year we've been increasing enrollment um like Mr Schmidt said we're we're almost at capacity this year um so I mean you know it depends on the uh you know the interest but most likely we will have have a waiting list for TK Kinder for this year so it depend on on kind of where you fall in that watery and then secondly if the student is like I say progress you um throughout the the years and they are falling behind in 1 of the 2 languages for lack of better words do you guys pick out the student know we don't as a public school we can't take any students out um so we then would provide them with those action with those additional support no I get so in so instead of kicking them out um we would provide them with like they would be probably placed say they're falling behind in Mandarin and we would first try placing them in that small uh small group MLD intervention class they still needed additional support we would recommend them to be in the after school um you know Mandarin support class and then on top of that we do have a a summer program for those students um we really need additional extra support that we would that we would put them um place them in that program to really just try to do everything we can to get them up to up to grade level in in whatever subject it is so they're having difficulty yeah and then last special easy um are they as they move up to they do best friend or is it like 1 class that himself no they each year um basically all the names go into the computer the computer of all up and then spits about into a into a new class so it's the it's the most Fair way to do it um you know we do look at some things we don't want to have 1 class that is entirely English Learners and then 1 class that's entirely Mandarin speakers so you know we kind of try to balance things out a little bit but for the most part we kind of let the computer do the job and then um it kind of makes it the most fair and and and makes the classes the most well well balanced so um as part so this summer we're offering just our um our intervention and support um if we do have Extra Spaces then we'll open those up to the rest of the students um to be able to be part of that um summer program we have 30 days program in the summer um but then um as part of our outside child care for this number we're switching providers most likely so um so for next summer not this summer coming up at the summer after that they will also be providing some camps during winter break um during Thanksgiving break um during all of our holidays and as well during the summer so if you're in the wait list on how long it kind of depends on um we try to first so first right now what uh Mr we're doing today was basically looking at what classes we have for next year um and how many spaces as of right now will be available in each 1 of those grade levels so when we first run the lottery those first spots will go between basically given out so all of our TK spots the remaining Kinder spots in any spots that we currently have open um in any of those other grade levels or we know are going to be open in any of those other grade levels then um in the lottery is in the end of April in may we put out um a form to all of our current families basically saying if you are not planning to come back next year please let us know then we open that second round of spots so probably in May sometime we'll open a second round of spots once we know which families aren't coming back then it's really uh kind of on a rolling basis so if someone has to move or you know they get relocated for work and they come in disenroll their student that spot will open up and so it could be you know even all throughout the summer that different spots come open as you know things happen um and families move or or for different reasons and then you know kind of anytime we have a spot open we'll go to the next list on the lottery but we try to get as many of the initial spots um filled right off the bat after the lottery but again then it's kind of on a rolling basis really all the way into the beginning of next year so you will reach out to them so we'll continue to reach out um so if a spot comes available like a third grade spot comes available there's somebody that next in line on the third grade weight list and it was July 15th you'll get an email that person next on the wait list will get an email that there's a spot open for them so for next year we're anticipating having um 3 kinds of classes so about 75 students our students enrolling with IEPs easily accommodated or is it more of a limited spot know so we will accommodate any um anything that is in their IEP so we'll work with the families that we have our um student services director Mr Fernandez who have a meeting um to go over the IEP and if your student has speech services or Site Services or anything like that um then we have our own staff and we also contract um contract out with um effectual Consulting and so anything that we don't have in house then we will bring in outside they share so the way that we make that work is our our TK is also do those special classes with steam and music and PE and so on Wednesdays our TKS would do those special classes um so that they weren't all in here um in their in their classroom but some of them may be at music um some of them may be at PE some of them maybe in our steam lab um so that we have enough spaces um and enough and and they have the same number of adults adult supervision or the same ratio um throughout the day on Wednesdays but it still allows our our TK teachers to participate in all of the professional development is there so if it is for our um the paid child care after school there's usually plenty of space open for that um for the different clubs um for some depending on how popular they are um there may you know there may be some wait list for that but we always have the um the page Child Care available um after school before and after school um there's there's usually they'll just add additional staff Staffing and we will have a um a lot of different classrooms license so if they need to add an additional classroom then they just need to get the additional Staffing for that oh I'm sorry 1 last question so is that basically it's usually if you're enrolled in the in in the after care there's usually a part of it um but then other families can can sign up for those um usually through the through the yeah we have some questions on Zoom um for tkh eligibility uh you mentioned that it will be 4 years old is it after September 5th after any student who turns for after September first and Is this different from the other TK programs and other schools uh no actually all of California has that same requirement um or has has that same age this year how many things does not out there right it should be by September if you check the Sorry by September by September yes sorry how many spots are um we don't have that right specifically by grade um like I said normally um first through 8 um is less as usually only a handful of spots each grade level different grade levels depending on um usually as kids get up into middle school because we're a newer school um so we do have a little bit more availability um because we started out a little bit smaller um like was mentioned we were about 250 Kids 2 years ago so our Middle School is still a little bit smaller so we do have some some additional space in there um but usually for first through fifth there's um there's kind of just a handful of spots right now that may that may increase um but uh but it depends on kind of movement of our current students how many applicants were there last year so how many applicants 200 about 200 across all things um does the private after-school care cover the early dismissal on Wednesdays as well yes I see is there a limit of after school care spots um so like I said we would usually have for the the the paid after school program um they'll add additional Staffing and we can add add classrooms as needed um so there's normally room in that um but some of our after school clubs it's it's really kind of based on how much interest we have for the individual um free after school programs so those could uh with the school attendance growing will facilities be expanded as well such as more bathrooms so um so right now we are like I said we there's 2 currently 2 open classrooms in this building um but those will become ours for next year so we as a charter school we basically least this facility from Irvine Unified School District and right now there's still 2 classrooms that are held by Irvine um next year those classrooms will become ours so we'll have 2 additional um classrooms but then we'll have the entire site and we'll be a capacity um so we are actually next Tuesday um having a study session during our board meeting to talk about any um kind of long-term plans for um possible expansion to uh to an their site possibly having a middle school um taking the middle school and expanding it to another site um but looking at that in the future right now as far as um restrooms and things like that on campus the long as we don't add additional Portables or something like that um we do leave all of the requirements for the number of restrooms we also have 2 kitchens here on campus so we do have um a free breakfast and lunch for all students um so everybody that comes gets free breakfast and lunch and we do have 2 kitchens to be able to accommodate that um as well so right now so long as we're just kind of in this building we're good but as we continue growing we are looking at other options uh this question is probably for an uh if my child has already learned papa papa mafa traditional characters in another kindergarten not be a problem to transition to simplified I don't think so because we have had a lot of students who have come in um with some background in traditional um and it seems to be a very easy adjustment um from what I've seen from what I've heard from uh from our teachers yeah I concur my son learned transitional to fifth grade when he came here and actually he founded a lot easier because he can strokes and hidden what he did not learn bottom of but I think if you knew performance even more advantageous you'll be ahead of a lot of students because that's a easy transition because bottom level is really easy translate to the APC except that you I'm still unable to trouble with the youth okay 2 more questions uh how many kindergarten students are here and how many spots are available for the lottery checking the lottery um right now we're looking at between 15 and 20 spots um available for kindergarten besides private after school care what other after school care does the School provide um so like I said we do have um outside of the private care we do have different clubs different um enrichment activities Sports and things that will be going on on a rotational basis um after school for students to be able to be part of um at no cost uh to families so um so we do have both of those options like I said the paid child care goes um technically you get out of your student in it from 6:30 in the morning to 6 PM um after school will typically run until about 4:30 for the for the free program okay yeah the last thing do you have in case of an emergency event like jail you guys do that how you protect the students from anything like that earthquake or that so we actually have monthly drills we have our operations manager we're actually just um up our comprehensive school safety plan right now uh each year we update that um we get parent feedback um law enforcement feedback and we update that um throughout the beginning of the year and it gets bored approved um in February okay so we have drills for the students we have um you know teachers kind of talk about it if different scenarios happen in class and we start the drills right off um in August so kind of with a fire drill to make sure the students know how to exit the building quietly line up um go out onto the field we do also have in October you've all heard of the California ShakeOut the earthquake drill we do a big um a full drill during that time with our staff a full evacuation emergency kind of search and rescue drill and then we do have um different lockdown drills that we work with our Irvine Police Department um to provide feedback on um and and work with us to make sure that we're doing you know everything that we can to keep students safe um in the event that you know anything we have somebody trying to come on campus or something like that so we we try to do a lot of different scenarios and different leads to make sure that we keep our students safe I have 2 questions um so we do kids school um 1 of our big things is making sure that students don't ever see anything new at home so parents are having to try to figure out um how to do something or teach their kids teach kids something um for homework so we do provide homework um but it's usually just um you know kind of a reinforcement of what they're doing in class that day as part of our um irony assessment system um that Mr schmider talked about there's a program called my path and it basically takes their assessment results and kind of designs activities um for them to do online so sometimes um it will assign that if students have access to that um to to the computer at home sometimes they'll work on that in class if they have some extra time um and then of course making sure that students are reading um are reading a little bit every night um to build up their literacy skills we do encourage them to read um books both in Mandarin and in English um to make sure that they're reading each night as well um we try not to overload them with homework we want students you know to still be kids to still get out there and be able to do different activities outside of school but we do want them to have some practice um at home just to kind of make sure that they're that they're continuing those skills that practice of their skills at home yeah so in lower grades um it's pretty Limited they do a lot more activities um in class full group and and individual activities more paper pencil um or you know oral in groups as they get older um know they do have a little bit more screen time so they may be working on different assessments online they may be doing some different projects online um we do try to keep the screen time down um espe especially with things that aren't super educational so not a lot of just you know watching movies or things like that um if they're using their screen try to make sure that it is for some type of um some type of educational purpose whether they're you know working on typing or project or or writing a paper or something like that um and then um but we do it's sort of progresses so we try to keep it more to a minimum in the younger grades but knowing that in the older rates they are going to have to have a little bit more screen time it's just kind of like Society is nowadays I know that there's a lottery standpoint so if you're out of District probably it's based on the it depends on the grade level um and it is still you know it is still watery so your number could still get um get called I would say there's a higher likelihood um either in the upper or in or if you're going straight into to TK because we do have more spots open there um if you're looking at probably kindergarten or first grade it may be a little bit harder TK there's there's 80 spots and so that that's why we have the most open spots so there's a there's a greater chance of being able to get in there are you taking questions from Zoom yep okay go ahead Zoom you have a few questions so I think you touch base on that uh the percentage right uh between the English and the Mandarin teaching so for the English uh teaching uh would that be taught by um the native English speaker taught by somebody who's speaks English who has a a multiple subject credential um to teach to teach English and and in English so um so our Mandarin would be taught by by a mandarin speaking teacher in English would be taught by an speaking teacher yeah that'll be a native right uh English speaker most usually um you know we can't technically if they have all the credentials the qualification some teachers may not necessarily be um a native English speaker but they would be somebody who is credentialed um to teach in English and has that um you know has that background and it has that ability to teach in in uh content in English technically we can't we can't just maybe in hiring based on on language if they held other qualifications and and um and are a very strong and I mean we interview all of our teachers we are pretty thought after here to work here so um so you know through that process um we do get very highly qualified um great dedicated teachers right but would that be like by separate uh person like you know between the Mandarin and the and the English uh teaching it's taught by a separate person so they have a separate Mandarin uh teacher and a separate English teacher okay okay and uh in in the beginning I think you mentioned that uh you guys like a charter charter school right so which is like independent I think from the the iusd yeah so we are an independent school so we're not um part of Irvine Unified School District um we like I said we rent their facility but other than that they don't have really any affiliation or oversight of us okay but then why you the preference to the local um like the you know the iusd so the way the charter schools receive facilities um we only receive the facility uh for the students who live within Irvine Unified School District so the space that Irvine gives us it's part of the laws around school districts providing facilities to Charter Schools um so basically the school district to give us enough space for all Irvine un for all students who would normally attend Irvine Unified School District they don't have to give us any space for students who don't it wouldn't you don't live within Irvine's boundaries so basically we take all of our students who live within our lives boundaries that's why they get Preference they sort of allow us to occupy this building and then the extras any extra space that we have then that goes to students who are outside we live outside Irvine unified but technically school districts are only required to to a lot of space for the students who would normally go to Irvine schools so that's where that preference um kind of comes from it's not because we have an affiliation with Irvine It's really because that's what allows us um to have this facility okay can you estimate like how how many spots maybe like coming out from like the boundary you know uh in the lottery system like based on your past experience parts are available for uh students like the Earth and done um right now um our current population and it would probably you know I mean that's what it's been for the last couple of years we have about 75% of our students who are from within Irvine and 25% who come from outside of Irvine so um so that's kind of how the lottery falls out out um usually each year okay thank you okay 1 more could you provide information about training credential and hiring of Mandarin teachers yeah so all of our teachers Mandarin teachers included older credentials to teach the subjects that they're teaching so um Amanda and teacher would be a fully credentialed um teacher fully credentialed to teach if they're teaching Elementary fully credential teach all subjects in elementary but they would also hold or they also have to hold an additional authorization to be able to teach those subjects in Mandarin so it's called a ban of credential or bilingual authorization so all of our Mandarin teachers all the same um credential as our Sol Elementary hold the same Elementary teaching credential our English teachers hold what's called an English learner authorization so they have an author ization to be able to teach all students as well as students who English is their second language all of our Mandarin teachers all that same um credentials to be able to teach all subjects in elementary school but they also hold an additional author to be able to teach that um in Mandarin so um so as we hire we always you know we first we don't we can't really interview any applicants who don't hold those credentials um so California new compliance thing so we have to make sure that all of our all of our teachers are fully credentialed and then we go through a pretty rigorous interview process we make sure that those teachers have a lot of have experienced um our you know passionate about teaching they actually have to do a demo lesson um and then we pick the the most qualified applicants um sometimes for our Mandarin applicants because Mandarin applicants are a little bit harder to find um we do sponsor some um Mandarin applicants on H1B Visas so we can make sure that we get the biggest tool of applicants um and the most um experienced applicants that we can get yeah so once you confirm a spot here in the school then we'll be sending that information um regarding the after school programs not really because as as long as we hold those students legally they have to give us the space so um so technically we you know we have I think right now 435 students who would normally um you know be in iusd schools and so they're legally required to provide us a space um it would not really be in their interest to try to move us around so um so usually Charter Schools would just say at their same site unless they go too and then are able to um to get a different facility like you mentioned yeah like if we were to expand um I previously worked for a different Charter School Organization um and we expanded in open to middle school so we had 2 Elementary countries for 2K eighths and then we turn those 2 and B k5s opened 6 to 8 middle schools so um got you know a different facility for that so sometimes you would expand that way um and that's kind of some of the things that we're looking for that strategic plan I would imagine you guys sooner or later you kind of reach uh beyond that capacity and have to open up have to look for it and then technically you know still Irvine would still have to provide us with that space so even once we get too big for this site um then we can petition for them to um offer us an additional spot so long as we have enough Irvine students a very very important so I think 1 Thing uh that really sets us apart is we do have I mean we have great teachers but we have great teachers who have that ability to teach all of the different subjects in both languages and so I think 1 of the biggest things that sets us apart rather than just having the Mandarin instruction focusing on teaching Mandarin um is really combining all of the different subjects and kind of having having a cohesive um movies that mix of of learning everything in languages um and then again I think our parents um we have really great parent involvement we have a you know probably 200 parents signed up as parent volunteers tears and they're you know they're really involved in their students education and really supportive and so that really provides that additional layer on top of our staff and our students really working part of the school having the support of parents both in school and then after school um really kind of makes it so that our students are are supported um on campus at home and are really able to arrived and and Excel so I think um you know just really having that cohesive program between both English and Mandarin 5050 provides that ability for our students if they go through the whole program to really learn Mandarin but um but to also at the same time learn all of the subjects in English as well versus more like a 9010 model where they're really only learning Mandarin to begin with and then there might be a little bit of a harder transition with the content knowledge um going up into the higher grades any other questions well I want to sincerely thank you all for staying as well for an hour and a half of listening to me talk um and again if you have any questions feel free to reach out I know um Scythe is a great wealth of information and I think most of you guys have already I heard from her but if you have any questions along the way or any questions while you're applying or about the lottery feel free to reach out but also um make sure to periodically go on our website we update things um you can find different information and um like and said we're having our May event at um at the Great Park so it'll be a great chance for you to meet other families learn a little bit it's probably better to meet other families and hear about how their kids are doing and what their experiences are um and so it's a great opportunity to just come out have fun we'll have more information on our website about that in the future but I look forward to welcoming all of your students here next year um in August thank you all you're welcome thank you everyone thank you for coming

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