Dual-language kindergarten classes have started in Carrboro Elementary and Glenwood Elementary schools, debuting a new venture for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Two teachers and two assistants, all fluent in both languages, instruct the classes.
Glenwood has 11 native English-speaking students and 11 students who speak Chinese as their first language.
Carrboro has 11 English-speaking students and 11 students whose first language is Spanish. Six of them do not speak any English.
Josephine Harris, director of special programs for the school system, said the first week of the dual-language immersion program has been productive and was met by a positive response from parents, students and teachers.
"It's really gone well," she said. "We're off to a real smooth start."
Harris said parents have been supportive of the program and are allowed to observe classes and come in to eat lunch with their child.
She said there were 11 or 12 parent sessions from March through May to inform the parents about how the class would be structured, what the curriculum would include and what officials had found in their research on other dual-language programs.
Harris applied for a federal grant to fund the program, which the school system received in October 2001. A 42-person committee was then formed to study and perform research for about a year before the program was implemented.