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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, February 13, 2012 Page 8 kindness, professionalism and great service in partnership with the District. Dr. Thein provided a hard copy of Chair Gogins' presentation as a bench handout, at- tached hereto and made a part hereof At the request of Councilmember Pust, Dr. Thein addressed the District's newest adventure: Dual Language Immersion program as another option for community families with half native language and halve English speaking students in one class, starting with Spanish students. Dr. Thein advised that the rationale for the program was to address population shifts and equity issues in serving all under- served families in the District from Kindergarten through pre-middle school stu- dents. Discussion among Dr. Thein, Chair Gogins, and Councilmembers included growth sustainability and how single-family or starter housing availability im- pacted that growth; the fascinating richness of immigrant families and cultures and dedication of those families to education; open enroll, the lottery system for enrollment, and economic impacts; balance, fairness and equity of the lottery sys- tem based on state standards; and waiting lists for such programs. Additional discussion included early childhood education options; challenges in serving children with special needs (e.g. autism), with 12% special education children at the current time, but their needs being more severe while at the same time facing program funding reductions draining other resources; and scholar- ships for all-day kindergarten students for those income-qualifying families, and enhanced school readiness programs to prepare those students before they reach kindergarten. Further discussion included successes through the Reading Recovery Program, as well as the Rotary-sponsored Read America Program; and the need for additional community volunteers for those types of mentoring programs to reach those chil- dren by third grade. Dr. Thein expressed the District's appreciation of the partnerships that had been developed, and ongoing support of the community and parents in the success of such programs. Chair Gogins encouraged interested volunteers to contact the District Center if in- terested to engage in those programs. Dr. Thein noted that Mounds View School District No. 621 had also been a recip- ient of a silver medal; noting that the Roseville City Council represented three (3) of the eleven (11) silver medal schools in MN. Mayor Roe also noted the Scholarships for ACT at the District No. 621 and their higher achievement rates; and thanked both School Districts for their partnership.