The Mandarin World Language option currently taught at Glenwood Elementary School will effectively end after its campus closes this summer.
Roughly eight months after first being floated as a closure option and three months after seeing their school chosen to shut down, students and families currently attending Glenwood Elementary now have their official options for next school year after the campus closes. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education voted 5-1 to dissolve the World Language learning pathway, which sees students taught Mandarin for 45 minutes a week, and reassign those students to neighborhood schools. Thursday’s vote does not impact the immediate future and circumstances around the Mandarin Dual Language option — the immersion pathway currently offered at Glenwood — which will transition to Rashkis Elementary in 2027-28.
Melinda Manning was the lone dissenting vote on whether to dissolve the Mandarin World Language option, but was in the majority in a vote on a motion to create some exceptions for some of its students. As brought to the meeting by Board Member Barbara Fedders, the elected officials approved a plan for rising Glenwood fifth graders in the world language pathway to also be designated to Rashkis Elementary to finish the program and graduate. Additionally, students in the world language track who have siblings in the dual language track will have the option to attend Rashkis — although they will not receive Mandarin instruction and will take Spanish as the world language elective.
Fedders and Manning were joined in the vote’s approval by Board Members Meredith Ballew and Vickie Feaster Fornville. Board Chair Riza Jenkins and Board Member George Griffin were the dissenting votes.
The entrance to Glenwood Elementary School in June 2026. (Photo by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
The vote came after an August 20 meeting where the Board of Education was meant to decide whether to split up Glenwood’s student body across the two learning pathways and determine the landing spots for both. While that happened with the dual language families, the lack of clarity around whether the Mandarin World Language option would continue left many in the Glenwood Elementary community frustrated. Many pointed to previous comments by board members around the June vote to select Glenwood for closure as commitments to preserve both aspects of the Mandarin program.
“I believe in keeping promises,” Manning said in her comments on Thursday. “I think we made a promise to the Glenwood community back in June that we were only closing the building, not programs. I realize that there’s times where promises have to be broken, but I don’t think this is one of those times — I think we could keep this promises, in some way, if we chose.”
The theme of ‘promises made, promises kept’ was prevalent during the nearly two hours of public comment period ahead of Thursday’s decision. Many Glenwood Elementary parents in attendance wore stickers that read “Keep Your Promises” and advocated for a solution to maintain Mandarin instruction for their children at Mary Scroggs Elementary School — the designated school for if the option could continue as a magnet program. The response came, in part, to CHCCS Superintendent Rodney Trice alerting families on Tuesday to his recommendation of dissolving the Mandarin World Language option and reassigning students in order to maintain flexibility ahead of a broader redistricting effort.
During public comment, Rashkis families and staff pushed back on the idea of phasing out the world language track at their campus — citing capacity concerns, logistics, and the short timeline of formal communication about another option being on the table. Many also balked at the PTA being alerted of the alternative outcome just a day before the meeting, creating a feeling of whiplash after Rashkis families learned of Trice’s recommendation sent to Glenwood families.
Additionally, some Scroggs families also advocated for Trice’s option and said despite the Mandarin program’s success, separating the world language with a magnet designation would create implementation challenges at their new location. Several parents credited the principal, Chrystal Epps, for her leadership during this start of the school year that had uncertainty surrounding the plan for the following year.
Trice ran the board through his rationale behind the recommendation to dissolve the Mandarin World Language option and not grant it magnet status at Scroggs Elementary. He also shared feedback shared by the Glenwood, Scroggs and Rashkis campus stakeholders that supplemented the conclusion — and reflected their displeasure with the entire process.
“When listening to those communities, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to place the world language program in Scroggs, in my opinion, and create the type of conditions that would ensure success in terms of outcomes we want for children,” the superintendent said. “Quite frankly, I wish this decision point [of the board’s] could’ve come in May and June when we’d asked for it to come…that would’ve given the administration the amount of time to really develop a model that could be implemented. But this decision has been [dragged] out for months. And here I am as superintendent, and I cannot stand here and recommend we stand up a magnet program that I would have to communicate to the broader Chapel Hill community in the matter of a month-and-a-half to invest in and attend.
CHCCS Superintendent Rodney Trice addresses the Board of Education during the September 18 meeting. (Photo via Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.)
“We’ve just run out of time, to be perfectly honest,” Trice concluded. “And that’s where my recommendation is rooted. Certainly it’s about student assignment, it’s about enrollment, but…I don’t think these parents are imagining these things. That would’ve been my preference. We had a decision date of June 4. We asked the board as an administration to make a decision on that date and then put us to work in terms of designing curriculum, in terms of developing a model that we could be proud of.”
Fedders acknowledged the difficult position board members found themselves, weighing Trice’s recommendation against pledges made to Glenwood families earlier in the closure process. She referenced the amount of emails the board received from Scroggs and Rashkis families in the wake of his letter to the Glenwood community.
“Much of [the email] is titled, ‘We stand with Dr. Trice,’ and I want you to know that I do too,” Fedders told the superintendent ahead of making her motion. “And I want you to know that I do too. I completely understand your analysis and respect your visionary leadership about teaching and learning. What I’m stuck on is that we made commitments to Glenwood to preserving these programs, and I was on record saying I was voting to close Glenwood because I trust these commitments. And when we looked to split it, I again though we would keep it [functioning].”
To a person, the CHCCS Board of Education members thanked the communities of all three schools for their passion and engagement in the months-long process surrounding a school closure. Board Member Meredith Ballew said even though the reality of having to close a school is upsetting and the process led to charged emotions, she hopes the district can join together to move forward and chart a course into the new look CHCCS will take into the 2027-28 school year.
“I feel that all of us need to dig deep here,” Ballew said, “and figure out how we’re going to make this work for our district to honor the students who have been in the World Language program the longest and made that commitment to a magnet program…while still making sure that we’re honoring the rest of our district as well. And I believe that this compromise has the best chance of accomplishing that.
“Are there still details to be worked out,” the board member asked. “Absolutely. But I hope that we can hash those out together and we can have meaningful input from all the parties involved.”
Featured photo via Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
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