McKinley Elementary School takes on dual language immersion program

McKinley Elementary School will house a portion of Burbank Unified’s Spanish dual-language immersion program beginning in the fall with a kindergarten class half made up of native English speakers and the other half native Spanish speakers.

The school district established its first dual-language program at Disney Elementary at the start of this school year and nearly 30 kindergarten students will progress to first grade in the fall at that school site.

While educators first considered adding a second Spanish dual-language class to Disney, they found the school’s capacity would not be large enough, said Tom Kissinger, director of elementary education for Burbank Unified.

With Spanish classes moving through the two schools, the kindergarten students who enroll in the programs in the fall will eventually progress to Jordan Middle School by 2021.

“I think this has been pretty well thought out and we’ve got a pretty good plan,” Kissinger said.

During a school board meeting on Thursday, board member Larry Applebaum praised Kissinger for taking the approach to offer the classes at the two school sites.

“It’s going to provide us with a basis for potentially expanding dual immersion into other sites and potentially other languages,” he said. “I think this is going to be a true win for this community in a lot of ways.”

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.

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