San Diego Unified trustees are expected to vote on changes to a charter school that specializes in German language immersion — but not all families are happy with the road their school is going down, or the timing of its decision. Albert Einstein Academies, a K-8 school that plans to expand to hig h school, describes itself in its charter as the first International Baccalaureate school in San Diego with a German-language immersion program, where instruction is split 50-50 between English and German. “The school was founded by a group of forward-thinking native German-speaking parents who spent hundreds of hours over a four-year period researching and evaluating educational models that would embrace their dream of a school for second language learning with an international focus,” the charter read. But the charter school is asking the district to do away with the German immersion program. It lists a number of reasons, including changes in its student population, including higher emotional needs and a growing number of English learners. In addition, stricter state credentialing requirements and a teacher shortage in Germany have created a German language teacher shortage, the school says. Switching to a German-language instruction mode, without a 50/50 instruction split, will require fewer. Already, the school says, neither the charter nor the school’s academic plan reflects its current German curriculum. “The 50/50 immersion program described in the charter is not, and has not been, consistently aligned in grades K-5, and the transition to a German language instructional model will meet the needs of students by focusing on listening, speaking, reading, and writing,” the school said in its request to the district. The charter’s superintendent, David Sciarretta, did not respond to questions about the proposed changes. But families with children at the school expressed concerns about how it has been handling language instruction — and the timing of its move to change the format officially. The deadline for San Diego Unified families to enroll their kids somewhere other than their local district school was just several weeks ago, on Nov. 15. Weeks later, the school’s principal, Greta Bouterse, was unexpectedly removed, prompting outrage within the community. In a Nov. 29 letter to families, Sciarretta said he could not give details. Albert Einstein Academies seen on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 in San Diego. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Meredith Mann has three kids who started attending the school in 2019. Two are still there now. Her oldest son, now in sixth grade, arrived at Einstein in kindergarten and is fluent in German. Her third-grader, she thinks, needed the immersion program in order to learn the language. “Between the two older ones, the experience hasn’t been very different until this year, where there’s big changes,” she said. She loves her kindergartener’s teacher, but the class has only about one student who speaks German. “I’m not an expert in education, but I talk to other parents that I know whose kids go to other immersion-type schools, and there seems to be a lot more rigor on — if you attend the school, you are committing to learning the second language,” she said. Cole Jones, a parent on the Friends of AEA Board, said that his daughter’s experience learning German had been immensely successful — up until this year. “There’s no German immersion this year,” said Lara Marlin, his wife. Jones said their daughter’s instruction this year is nothing like what the school’s charter describes — she isn’t getting the 50/50 instruction in German and English. “She really doesn’t get anything,” he said. Still, he said she’s fortunate that her teacher is a German teacher and knows his daughter speaks German, so she’s providing opportunities to practice her German. Antonella Montagna’s family is new to the school this year, after two years on the waiting list. Right now, her daughter is taught in both German and English in class. “Next year, it won’t be like that,” she said. She said she felt especially discouraged because the window for school choice enrollment had ended just weeks prior. “There are many parents that had my same problem,” she said. “Now they are thinking just to remove their kids from the school, because we feel unstable — you know what I’m saying? — for the future of our kids.” The school is also asking the district to delay the opening of its high school from next fall to 2028. ...read more read less