fairfax county spanish immersion being shut down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God, I hope they do shut it down. It's yet another program with few proven - actually NO proven benefits - except to get kids out of a base school they don't like and make it sound like they are getting some kind of "special" program here in wonderful FCPS. Good riddance to a waste of money and resources.

Sounds like AAP.

actually, our base school would be fine. But immersion was an opportunity we put our name in for, got waitlisted and then called in second grade when we never expected. It has been great. And guess what, we chose that over AAP! (And we are OOB.)

+1 - we chose it over AAP also. Actually I have kids on both sides of the spectrum and no matter their AAP level or IEP support immersion has been great for them. I slug every day and very rarely would I say that I have a car full of english only speakers. Every other county teaches multiple languages, we should too!

[Anonymous]

Our principal has been told that it is very very very unlikely that immersion will be cut even though it is in the proposal. The school board knows it would be a logistical nightmare. What could potentially happen is that some of the immersion supports may be decreased but the actual program will remain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God, I hope they do shut it down. It's yet another program with few proven - actually NO proven benefits - except to get kids out of a base school they don't like and make it sound like they are getting some kind of "special" program here in wonderful FCPS. Good riddance to a waste of money and resources.

School is not a business, that must show an excellent ROI. It's quite possible that your child will never use knowledge of tectonic plates, or the life cycle of a butterfly, for example, in his or her adult life. Are you saying that, since that is of no benefit, schools should not teach it?

[Anonymous]

Following this situation very closely and anxious for results, come May. We were enthusiastically planning to move from DC to Fairfax and were excited about a seamless transfer from a DC immersion program. If Fairfax gets rid of immersion we will stay put in DC. Those against the program could probably give a hoot; however, Fairfax will lose people who would add to the tax base if it gets rid of great programs. Very sad for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our principal has been told that it is very very very unlikely that immersion will be cut even though it is in the proposal. The school board knows it would be a logistical nightmare. What could potentially happen is that some of the immersion supports may be decreased but the actual program will remain.

Agree this is more likely. I do think one or two immersion centers should be closed eventually as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Following this situation very closely and anxious for results, come May. We were enthusiastically planning to move from DC to Fairfax and were excited about a seamless transfer from a DC immersion program. If Fairfax gets rid of immersion we will stay put in DC. Those against the program could probably give a hoot; however, Fairfax will lose people who would add to the tax base if it gets rid of great programs. Very sad for everyone.

Double check that you can get in. Some schools have limits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Following this situation very closely and anxious for results, come May. We were enthusiastically planning to move from DC to Fairfax and were excited about a seamless transfer from a DC immersion program. If Fairfax gets rid of immersion we will stay put in DC. Those against the program could probably give a hoot; however, Fairfax will lose people who would add to the tax base if it gets rid of great programs. Very sad for everyone.

Double check that you can get in. Some schools have limits.

Current vacancies here: http://www.fcps.edu/is/worldlanguages/immersionvacancies.shtml
Though if they are transferring in 3rd grade or beyond, I'd be shocked if they couldn't get a seat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal has been told that it is very very very unlikely that immersion will be cut even though it is in the proposal. The school board knows it would be a logistical nightmare. What could potentially happen is that some of the immersion supports may be decreased but the actual program will remain.

Agree this is more likely. I do think one or two immersion centers should be closed eventually as well.

God, I hope this is true. (SI parent here.) Insane that this is even on the table.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, pp, for sharing info from your principal. I'm going to ask ours, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our principal has been told that it is very very very unlikely that immersion will be cut even though it is in the proposal. The school board knows it would be a logistical nightmare. What could potentially happen is that some of the immersion supports may be decreased but the actual program will remain.

how would this be a logistical nightmare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:immersion is a waste of money especially for things like German, Japanese and all the other languages no one will continue to use. i am all for shutting it down.

Too bad shutting it down won't save any money.

If they do, the same kids will be somewhere else in FCPS. They will need classrooms, teachers, and everything else that costs money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:immersion is a waste of money especially for things like German, Japanese and all the other languages no one will continue to use. i am all for shutting it down.

Too bad shutting it down won't save any money.

If they do, the same kids will be somewhere else in FCPS. They will need classrooms, teachers, and everything else that costs money.

This last statement is untrue. It will save money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:immersion is a waste of money especially for things like German, Japanese and all the other languages no one will continue to use. i am all for shutting it down.

Too bad shutting it down won't save any money.

If they do, the same kids will be somewhere else in FCPS. They will need classrooms, teachers, and everything else that costs money.

This last statement is untrue. It will save money.

Correct. FCPS says $1.9 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:immersion is a waste of money especially for things like German, Japanese and all the other languages no one will continue to use. i am all for shutting it down.

Too bad shutting it down won't save any money.

If they do, the same kids will be somewhere else in FCPS. They will need classrooms, teachers, and everything else that costs money.

This last statement is untrue. It will save money.

Correct. FCPS says $1.9 million.[/quote

The budget task force says that and they've provided nothing to show how they got those numbers. It'll probably save something but who knows if it'll be 1.9 or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
immersion is a waste of money especially for things like German, Japanese and all the other languages no one will continue to use. i am all for shutting it down.



Too bad shutting it down won't save any money.

If they do, the same kids will be somewhere else in FCPS. They will need classrooms, teachers, and everything else that costs money.



This last statement is untrue. It will save money.



Correct. FCPS says $1.9 million.

Not entirely. FCPS knows how much they spend as a budget line item for immersion right now. They can isolate that item immediately. What they haven't done is off-set that number with the costs of returning all the immersion children to their base schools. This is partly because they can't know yet what exactly that will look like - how many of them will need busing to their base school? Will it require an additional bus? How many students will return to each base school? How many of those students will need free or reduced lunch? Will it require additional teachers and/or TAs at those base schools? Will it require additional classrooms (trailers) for some schools that are already overcrowded? Plus the administrative cost of getting all the students' records transferred to all the base schools.

Simply figuring that out would take weeks of sorting through the data. They haven't done that. The $1.9 million number is JUST the cost of immersion program. It doesn't include costs incurred for cutting it.