The Board of Control voted Monday to approve a three-year charter for Hinoki International School, Michigan’s first dual-immersion Japanese-English school.
Based in metro Detroit, Hinoki International School is the 20th charter school currently authorized by SVSU.
Dual-immersion programs are meant to offer a bilingual experience to young students when their minds are developmentally best able to acquire a second language.
Hinoki International School is one of only a few in the United States to teach all subjects in English and Japanese.
It opened in 2010 as a charter school authorized by Livonia Public Schools, with 14 students in its single kindergarten classroom. By the 2013-2014 school year, its student body had expanded to 130.
However, the Livonia Board of Education voted to revoke Hinoki’s charter during a meeting July 28, 2014.
Board members had serious concerns about the financial, governance and management activities at the school, according to meeting minutes.
Hinoki International School had defaulted on its contract with Livonia Public Schools by failing to secure a facility and enroll students for the 2014-2015 school year.
With a charter from SVSU, the school will reopen for the 2015-2016 school year and enroll students in grades K-5 at a new facility shared with Schoolhouse Montessori Academy’s preschool programs in Farmington Hills.
The school’s unique curriculum was developed in partnership with education experts at Eastern Michigan University as part of a $560,000 federal charter school implementation grant.
“We expect many educational connections with SVSU to emerge immediately and well into the future,” Director of SVSU’s School-University Partnership Office Craig Douglas said.
“We at Hinoki are thrilled about our new partnership with Saginaw Valley State University,” Anne Hooghart, Hinoki school board president, added. “Their commitment to innovative global education and intercultural education is evident. SVSU has a growing Japanese language program and a sister university in Shikoku, Japan, and we hope to establish mutually-beneficial relationships.”
