Changes to French Immersion at Kent Gardens?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are out-of-boundary and attend KG and it has been absolutely great for them. No, they are not going to be fluent just through this experience but it's an additional type of learning that's very beneficial for their developing brains, plus expands linguistic and cultural awareness daily from a young age. They have friends who are in-boundary and out, immersion and non-immersion (more immersion, yes, but it's not like there's a divide). My older DC is in both immersion and AAP and there are a lot of kids doing that, so seems not to be a problem (the class isn't smaller than normal). Love the admin, love the school vibe.

And and love that FCPS provides some non-mainstream options for families and kids who want them. In a school system of this size, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to support special programs.

My in-boundary child shouldn’t have to deal with trailers and overcrowding because another family wants a pony trick for their child.

[Anonymous]

It would be interesting to see a list of schools where kids are placing "out" for immersion. Is that available?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are out-of-boundary and attend KG and it has been absolutely great for them. No, they are not going to be fluent just through this experience but it's an additional type of learning that's very beneficial for their developing brains, plus expands linguistic and cultural awareness daily from a young age. They have friends who are in-boundary and out, immersion and non-immersion (more immersion, yes, but it's not like there's a divide). My older DC is in both immersion and AAP and there are a lot of kids doing that, so seems not to be a problem (the class isn't smaller than normal). Love the admin, love the school vibe.

And and love that FCPS provides some non-mainstream options for families and kids who want them. In a school system of this size, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to support special programs.

My in-boundary child shouldn’t have to deal with trailers and overcrowding because another family wants a pony trick for their child.

Every FCPS ES has it's special circumstances (Title I, AAP center, LI program, arts program, etc.) and you know about them and deal with them when you buy a house. It's all part of the game in Fairfax Co. Deal, move, or go private.

[Anonymous]

The bigger problem I have as an in-boundary Kent Gardens (non-immersion) parent is that the neighborhood is changing so fast...so many people with $$$ tearing down houses and building zero-lot mansions 6 feet from each other. Yuk. So different than when we moved here 7 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be interesting to see a list of schools where kids are placing "out" for immersion. Is that available?

You can find some of that information on the FCPS capacity dashboard, although if the number of students transferring from a particular school to another school (including a language immersion school) is 10 or less, they just report it as “1” placement “for privacy reasons.” And the data is presented so that it’s easier to see who is transferring into a particular school than out of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bigger problem I have as an in-boundary Kent Gardens (non-immersion) parent is that the neighborhood is changing so fast...so many people with $$$ tearing down houses and building zero-lot mansions 6 feet from each other. Yuk. So different than when we moved here 7 years ago.

Yeah, must be terrible to have a house that you know you can sell to a builder for a tidy sum because people will pay a lot to live in a close-in area with good schools. Try living somewhere where there's no new construction and the schools can't attract enough kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are out-of-boundary and attend KG and it has been absolutely great for them. No, they are not going to be fluent just through this experience but it's an additional type of learning that's very beneficial for their developing brains, plus expands linguistic and cultural awareness daily from a young age. They have friends who are in-boundary and out, immersion and non-immersion (more immersion, yes, but it's not like there's a divide). My older DC is in both immersion and AAP and there are a lot of kids doing that, so seems not to be a problem (the class isn't smaller than normal). Love the admin, love the school vibe.

And and love that FCPS provides some non-mainstream options for families and kids who want them. In a school system of this size, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to support special programs.

My in-boundary child shouldn’t have to deal with trailers and overcrowding because another family wants a pony trick for their child.

Every FCPS ES has it's special circumstances (Title I, AAP center, LI program, arts program, etc.) and you know about them and deal with them when you buy a house. It's all part of the game in Fairfax Co. Deal, move, or go private.

every single ES does not have special circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bigger problem I have as an in-boundary Kent Gardens (non-immersion) parent is that the neighborhood is changing so fast...so many people with $$$ tearing down houses and building zero-lot mansions 6 feet from each other. Yuk. So different than when we moved here 7 years ago.

Yeah, must be terrible to have a house that you know you can sell to a builder for a tidy sum because people will pay a lot to live in a close-in area with good schools. Try living somewhere where there's no new construction and the schools can't attract enough kids.

I don't want to move, but thanks for the tip. So nasty!!

[Anonymous]

I would agree that LI programs should be restricted to in-boundary students when a school is over crowded and using trailers because of capacity. It sounds like Kent Gardens is trying to make that very change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be interesting to see a list of schools where kids are placing "out" for immersion. Is that available?

You can find some of that information on the FCPS capacity dashboard, although if the number of students transferring from a particular school to another school (including a language immersion school) is 10 or less, they just report it as “1” placement “for privacy reasons.” And the data is presented so that it’s easier to see who is transferring into a particular school than out of the school.

In Kent Gardens' case, the schools sending more than 10 students (presumably for LI) this year are Spring Hill (18), Chesterbrook (13), Franklin Sherman (12), Haycock (12), Shrevewood (12), Westgate (12), and Freedom Hill (10). And then there are a bunch sending somewhere between 1-9 students, but FCPS doesn't disclose the exact number.

So most of the kids are coming from other schools in the McLean pyramid, or from nearby schools in the Langley or Marshall pyramids. Note that Kent Gardens, in turn, is sending 31 kids to Churchill Road to AAP this year. In total there are 198 kids transferring into KG and 44 transferring out.

[Anonymous]

Where did you find that information? Not sure how to set up that google search or where I would look for that info.

[Anonymous]

Never mind, found it. I missed the post about the dashboard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh it's fair sister. Kent Gardens should prioritize neighborhood kids over outsiders.

Amen!

Absolutely.

The out-of-bounds French Immersion parents are the worst!

They care not-at-all about KG and speed through local neighborhoods, block driveways, etc.

Trailers - the temporary trailers - are still in use at KG after 7+ years (way beyond the trailers' designed lifespan). Many are now FULL of black mold (teachers have suffered respiratory problems).

KG is about LAST on the current school board's list for improvements/spending, for obvious reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are out-of-boundary and attend KG and it has been absolutely great for them. No, they are not going to be fluent just through this experience but it's an additional type of learning that's very beneficial for their developing brains, plus expands linguistic and cultural awareness daily from a young age. They have friends who are in-boundary and out, immersion and non-immersion (more immersion, yes, but it's not like there's a divide). My older DC is in both immersion and AAP and there are a lot of kids doing that, so seems not to be a problem (the class isn't smaller than normal). Love the admin, love the school vibe.

And and love that FCPS provides some non-mainstream options for families and kids who want them. In a school system of this size, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to support special programs.

My in-boundary child shouldn’t have to deal with trailers and overcrowding because another family wants a pony trick for their child.

It's clear that in bound immersion transfers cause the 121% overcapacity problem at Kent Gardens. What is not clear is how many base school students are in the program. 174 in bound /6= avg 29 per grade level. KG has 147 this school year in grade 1. 5 classrooms and 2 or 3 dedicated immersion only?

No in boundary student should be faced with trailers and class size impacts for 100% optional programs. Nor should taxpayers be footing the bill for the extra costs. KG problems have existed for decades. All this stuff is from the new proposed CIP which is the only thing on boarddocs with any mention of the problem:

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/Proposed-CIP-FY-2023-27.pdf

CIP=Kent
p 42 Table 8
Monitoring Capacity Concerns by FCSB for future consideration

p 50 - history on what FCPS has done about the Kent Gardens overcapacity since the SY2012-13 school year. Appears to have exhausted interior modifications.

p 141 A, B, E, F, H
A. increase efficiency by re-assigning instructional spaces - already done
B. possible program changes - not done
E. repurpose existing school facility not currently used as a school or build new - Fritch's Dunn Loring?
F. capacity enhancement with a modular or addition - ridiculous to pay for because of a program
H. boundary adjustment - history of prioritizing pet FLI over base school at some ES

p 259-trailer SF is 10% of the actual building!
Building 77,901 SF
Temporary Classrooms 7,704 SF (11)

[Anonymous]

Elaine Tholen said during the CIP work session today that the change that is being made is that the percentage of students in the French immersion program who already are zoned for Kent Gardens is being changed from 60%, which presumably is in effect now, to 75% going forward. She acknowledged that probably wouldn't be enough to fully alleviate the overcrowding.

Based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations, it seems this might reduce the enrollment by about 75 students next year, which indeed would still leave the school over capacity.