Board brief

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To: Blue Valley USD 229 Board of Education and Superintendent · From: Keep BV Mandarin, parents of Chinese immersion students · For: the November 9, 2026 regular meeting · Prepared: October 15, 2026

The ask

The district plans to end elementary and middle-school Chinese after 2026–27 and has published no savings figure. ¹ On August 10, 2026 this Board approved, 7–0, a 2026–27 goal to "Complete a K–12 World Language program evaluation and present recommendations to improve program opportunities, enrollment and operational efficiency." ^{2 3} That evaluation has not been published. Before acting, please compare cancellation with the alternatives on one basis: the students enrolled K–8 in 2026–27, school years 2027–28 through 2034–35, in 2026–27 dollars.

Added cost compared with cancelling (parents' estimates, not district figures)

Parents' estimates (model v1.0.0, 2026), not district figures: cost added on top of cancellation for the students enrolled K–8 in 2026–27, 2027–28 through 2034–35, in 2026–27 dollars. The deficit comparator is the district's projected $4 million. ⁴

Costs fall as cohorts finish. The deficit comparator is the district's own "approximately a $4 million deficit" of October 9, 2026. ⁴ The General Fund comparator is the 2026–27 budget of $200,590,299. ⁵ Cost drivers are teacher pairs (at least one per grade per school), Chinese Language Arts sections, paraeducators, the dean, coaching, visas and materials, with teacher cost at the district's 2026–27 contracted average of $85,732 plus payroll tax; the state's 2025–26 report puts the average at $86,960 including board-paid insurance. ^{5 6}

What is unknown

1. How many families keep their children at their current school. The superintendent reportedly said cancellation saves about nine teacher positions only if students return to neighborhood schools, and that if families stay, "staffing would remain the same." ⁷ In our LOW case every family stays, in BASE half do, in HIGH none do. On base settings that one choice moves the full-sunset estimate between about $1.5 million and $3.2 million. The answer is in the placement-form counts.
2. Enrollment. Nothing has been published for 2026–27. Our cohort sizes are illustrative, from the 2022–23 headcounts and the 54-seat cap. ^{8 9}
3. Support costs. The dean's cost, the fourteen "ADDL TEACHING CI-YEAR" supplemental contracts of 2025–26, and whether the consultant and coaching still exist are not public. Curriculum vendors were paid $49,875 in fiscal 2026. ^{10 11}
4. Not modeled: families leaving the district, and high-school Chinese.

The district's own February 2023 evaluation already described a sunset for current cohorts and a Mandarin special inside the school day, and estimated the special at $124,000 over six years and $19,000 a year once implemented, on a cost basis the slide does not explain. ¹² Most districts we found that ended Mandarin immersion let current students finish. ^{13 14}

We will help fund in-day Mandarin, within your rules

Keep Mandarin inside the school day for current students using your own 2023 model: a high-frequency Mandarin special for former-immersion grades 1–5 at the immersion site, in the same rotation as the existing K–5 Spanish special, and a 1.0-unit Mandarin elective in middle school, both taught by district-employed, Kansas-licensed teachers under the negotiated agreement. ^{12 15 16 17} Tier 1, within the 2023 rules as written: through one Board-approved restricted gift under Policy KH, held in a separate fund under K.S.A. 72-1142, families fund all non-salary costs: adapting the Chinese Language Arts curriculum, materials and libraries, annual proficiency testing, professional learning and technology, with universal access never tied to giving. ^{18 19} Tier 2, only if the Board determines in writing that the 2023 "privately funded" rule does not bar it, or amends it: a pooled, multi-year restricted gift toward the general-fund cost of the special. We are not asking you to pay a vendor, charge tuition, or put private money into any teacher's paycheck without your express decision. ⁸

What we request

1. Publish the Board's World Language evaluation, with its cost model and alternatives, before a final decision.
2. Publish the district's 2027–28 savings estimate for cancellation: costs that continue, staff reassigned, positions cut, transition costs, and the assumed share of families who stay.
3. Publish aggregate placement-form counts, 2026–27 enrollment and sections by grade, and an aggregate position list with salary and benefits.
4. Compare cancellation, a full sunset, a daily Mandarin block for current K–5 students and middle-school Chinese Language Arts as an elective, publicly, before any irreversible staffing step.

Two open-records requests covering most of these records are pending; see records already requested. The full case, with every source, is at keepbvmandarin.org.