A San Diego charter school has the green light from San Diego Unified trustees to remove its German immersion program, despite parents’ request for more oversight of the school. The change approved Wednesday evening will see Albert Einstein Academies switch from its German-immersion model to a Ger man-language program, postpone the opening of its high school and move its administrative office. Einstein had been founded as the first German-immersion International Baccalaureate school in the county, serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school was already not performing German immersion in the school, so the changes would bring the school into compliance with its charter. If the school remained non-compliant, the district would have no other option than to begin steps to revoke its charter, said Deidre Walsh, San Diego Unified’s director of charter schools. Unless the school came into compliance, the district would have to issue a notice of violation. The school would then be given only 60 or 90 days to try and correct the issue — which it has tried to do already but can’t. Axel Schwarz, a teacher and parent, speaks during a San Diego Unified School Board meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025 in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Many of the parents who spoke before the board Wednesday opposed the change and asked for more district oversight. Some also raised concerns about how little teachers are paid, and about the growing costs of building the charter’s planned new high school. “We chose AEA for its promise of true immersion, learned later that that had not been true for a long time — and yet the website continued to claim this,” said Natalie Cook. She said her daughter’s German had gotten worse this year. Cole Jones, a parent and board member of Friends of AEA, said the immersion program — in which students are taught in both German and English, at a 50/50 split — had been neglected for years. “You’ll hear economic concerns, but there’s been a long-term conscious effort for this,” he said. He said the school had been offered financial support, but it wasn’t supported by the charter’s board. The school has seen growing turmoil in recent months, including the sudden departure of its elementary school’s principal.  The charter’s superintendent, David Sciaretta, did not respond to requests for comment. Others public commenters Wednesday night spoke in favor of the charter revision, with some saying that ending the immersion model would allow the school to better serve all students. Einstein board member Kristin Rebien said she was confident the new program, which she said had been designed over two years, would work well for students, particularly those who aren’t native English or German speakers. “Students who don’t speak English or German as their primary language are not well served by a dual immersion program,” she said. Albert Einstein Academies seen on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 in San Diego. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Another parent, Laura Anselmo, whose son’s first language is Spanish, said teaching German as its own subject would be better for English learners — but she also felt the proposed amount of teaching time would be too little for him to learn German. “Students currently receive only 45 minutes of German four days a week — just three hours a week,” she said. “In my opinion, this is not enough time to maintain the level of German they worked so hard to do in previous years.” Arthur Congo, the senior director of southern California local advocacy at the California Charter Schools Association, said that part of what was preventing the school from complying with its charter was that visa concerns for teachers from Germany were making it harder to hire. San Diego Unified trustees ultimately voted unanimously to approve the changes — to a loud, single “boo” from the audience — but said they had heard the concerns from families. Trustee Cody Petterson said he felt for the parents, but that legally, trustees needed to defer to administrators and the charter board — and that “attempting to intervene in a way that was outside of our purview would be a very serious issue.” He acknowledged that they may hear more later. “Per some of the allegations around fiscal malfeasance, or all these other issues — what we’re voting on today doesn’t preclude us from doing that, correct?” said Trustee Shana Hazan. Walsh agreed, saying the district takes an active oversight role as a charter-school authorizer. ...read more read less