an Entrance to Maple's Heart

Developers planning a Quincy charter school that would mix Asian immigrants and native English speakers and draw on both Western and Eastern educational traditions say it will provide a new approach for English-language learners and a fresh opportunity for all Quincy students.

“We want to prepare them for international readiness; that’s a huge concept for us,’’ said Dean Chin, spokesman for the proposed Hanlin International Academy. The school aims “to close the achievement gap [for] Quincy’s new Americans’’ while providing a superior education for all its students through a program “immersed in a fusion of classical Far Eastern and Western instruction,’’ the school’s founding group says in its application for a state charter.

But the idea has drawn a cool reception from city officials. Mayor Tom Koch said he was concerned over what funding a charter school in Quincy “would do to my budget.’’ Public school officials and mayors have long complained that the state funds charter schools by reducing its aid to traditional public schools.

And School Committee member Nick Puleo went further, issuing a press release characterizing the “Asian charter school’’ plan as a form of “renewed segregation right here in Quincy.’’

The school proposes to start operations next year with 88 sixth- and seventh-graders, equally divided between English Language Learners - the term used by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for students who are not native English speakers - and native-born students. It plans to grow to 308 students in grades 6 through 12.

Classroom instruction would be in English, but students would also study Mandarin (China’s official language), Eastern culture, and classical schools of thought and thinkers from both Western and Eastern traditions. English-language learners would have one year in special classes before entering regular classrooms, as state rules now require.

“It’s a huge intellectual endeavor. . . . We want students to read the classics,’’ said Chin, a former Quincy physics teacher who has studied Chinese classical education.

Chin said the group of eight “founders’’ who filed a 59-page application for the school’s charter earlier this year includes specialists in English, world classics, American history, and science as well as Eastern education.

Describing the school’s plan as “humanities heavy,’’ Chin said even teaching math and science would use examples taken from world history to “make it come alive.’’

The name Hanlin is drawn from the famous Chinese academy that prepared scholars for roles in government from the eighth to the 20th centuries. But Chin rejected the notion that the school intends to segregate Quincy’s Asians from other students, pointing out that segregation is illegal and the school’s founders received a $20,000 development grant from the state.

The plan drew praise from former City Council candidate Victor Ng, who called it “an exchange program without going anywhere’’ and said it would prepare students for a globalized economy.

“Think how valuable it would be . . . for anyone who wanted to live or work in China, especially in high-powered economic areas like Shanghai and Hong Kong,’’ Ng said.

But Quincy school officials don’t see a need for a charter school to serve the city’s Asian immigrant population, said David McCarthy, the School Committee’s vice chairman.

“I think we can give them just as much as they would get at a charter school,’’ he said.

Puleo was more critical, saying the Hanlin school’s prospectus shows “a complete lack of knowledge for the programs and policies’’ of the Quincy schools by suggesting they are not doing a good job educating the city’s new Americans. He criticized the prospectus’ contention that “new Americans will finally get a viable education option for their children.’’

Like Koch, Puleo said the charter school would “undermine’’ the school system’s budget.

Under the state’s complicated formula for funding charter schools, the state subtracts several thousands of dollars from Chapter 70 school assistance to the city for each student who enrolls in a charter school, Koch said. City officials were calculating the financial consequences of a charter school last week, he said.

The school founders submitted their application last month and expect a response from the state Department of Education sometime this month. If the response is positive, the group will submit a final application by mid-November.

Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox2@gmail.com.