The Redlands school district will launch a new program in which elementary school students will learn Spanish and English side by side. The program at McKinley Elementary School will open for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten in the 2026-27 school year and will add a grade level each year. The program will exist alongside the classes already at the school and parents can choose whether to put their student in the immersion program, Casotrena said. The school district announced the program days before notifying some staff that their jobs could be on the line in the next school year. The district began the process for implementing a dual immersion program in 2019 but pulled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Balingit said.