Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the other post on this topic. My daughter started German immersion at first grade. We went to Orange Hunt for elementary, and Irving right now for middle, and we were supposed to go to West Springfield to continue on in German. Our base school does not have German. I’ve been emailing back-and-forth to the transfer office in the basic messages so out of luck.
German is my daughter’s favorite class, all her friends have been together in it since first grade, and now she has to change in high school

If they had let me know, maybe we would’ve changed her mind about middle school and she is an anxious and shy child as well her friends are important to her

There’s no German Immersion at WSHS. Your special program ended. Back to base school. You should have established residency in the Orange Hunt boundary back in 2018 if you cared so much about the high school.

Bless your heart.

We own a home in WSHS boundary that was going to be rezoned out because of all these language transfers in. Of course I’m salty.

German Immersion in an elementary level program. There is no German Immersion at the middle school and high school level and no room in the neighborhood schools for extra students.

I have no dog in this fight, but what is the point of offering immersion when there is no path for the kids to continue that language through high school? When the kids enrolled in immersion, the parents were told that there is a path for them. Changing that mid-stream is no different from rezoning you from your precious WSHS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the other post on this topic. My daughter started German immersion at first grade. We went to Orange Hunt for elementary, and Irving right now for middle, and we were supposed to go to West Springfield to continue on in German. Our base school does not have German. I’ve been emailing back-and-forth to the transfer office in the basic messages so out of luck.
German is my daughter’s favorite class, all her friends have been together in it since first grade, and now she has to change in high school

If they had let me know, maybe we would’ve changed her mind about middle school and she is an anxious and shy child as well her friends are important to her

There’s no German Immersion at WSHS. Your special program ended. Back to base school. You should have established residency in the Orange Hunt boundary back in 2018 if you cared so much about the high school.

Bless your heart.

We own a home in WSHS boundary that was going to be rezoned out because of all these language transfers in. Of course I’m salty.

German Immersion in an elementary level program. There is no German Immersion at the middle school and high school level and no room in the neighborhood schools for extra students.

I don't think that the transfer is as simple as 'the school is closed to transfers'. One year when we tried to apply for a language transfer for my daughter, the school we were looking to transfer to was not an option. The subsequent year, I looked again when transfer window opened although I was not hopeful about it, and the school was open to transfer. This is a school that is known to be oversubscribed.

Her transfer was approved, and when she went there, she realized that the class size for her language was quite small, and they are combining 3 levels of the language into one class to sustain it. I think they specifically approved transfers for that class, because the other option is probably to phase it out.

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield folks are really brutal.

Fortunately for them, the School Board is a bunch of ninnies and didn't move anyone out of West Springfield even though it was well over the 105% threshold that they used to kick kids out of a bunch of other schools.

It is not brutal.

WSHS has been closed to transfers for over a decade.

Since Dr. Reid has arrived, someone at Gatehouse has been overriding FCPS transfer policy and the WSHS administration, approving every single transfer, not just German language transfers but every other transfer into WSHS, almost tripling the number of teachers kids and military Fort Belvoir residents that historically transfer into the closed school.

Then, FCPS tried to rezone 2 neighborhoods out of WSHS, that almost exactly matched the number of students Gatehouse has been allowing to transfer into WSHS in violation of FCPS own transfer policy. This rezoning of residents to accommodate non resident transfers into WSHS made people go ballistic over the complete unfairness of letting students transfer into a closed school in violation of district policy. All FCPS needed to do was enforce their own written transfer policy.

There is nothing brutal about demanding that FCPS enforce their written transfer policy, by sending all the German language transfers into Irving and WSHS and sending those studdnts to Robinson. Nor is there anything brutal in demanding that Gatehouse enforce district policy, by not allowing a single transfer into closed schools like WSHS, except for teachers' kids and active duty military living on Fort Belvoir.

If FCPS simply enforced the old transfer policy and shut down all transfers into closed schools like WSHS, there would be no reason to eliminate language transfers entirely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what are we saying--that a student who enrolled last year as a freshman for a particular a language at a different school will not be able to pupil place into that school this upcoming year as a sophomore to continue the language? Is that what FCPS is saying? If so, shouldnt they send out this email to all parents since it's a major change?

That is an unknown. Rising 9th graders are not being given the option, that is what is being reported at the moment.

What do you mean it's an "unknown"?! Shouldn't FCPS know already what it plans to do? My point is, shouldn't they be clear with guidance on this to ALL students who are affected or potentially could be affected? Isn't it crazy that this is being done without proper socialization to parents and students???

Just wanted to provide an update. I have a sophomore DD with a language transfer, and we didn't know what if anything would happen to her transfer, since language transfer is no longer an option. We did receive a renewal request, and were able to submit another language transfer application. We'll see if it gets approved.

Same here and my son is a freshman who transferred for AP.

They should allow for the current 1st-6th graders in language immersion programs to be pupil placed for language. They have told parents at info sessions that would be allowed and is a part of many parents considerations.

They should be telling parents now that moving for language pupil placement is not allowed, which will affect kids for MS and HS now.

But the idea that kids and parents have been told for years that they are allowed to pupil place to continue the language and then to take that away is BS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the other post on this topic. My daughter started German immersion at first grade. We went to Orange Hunt for elementary, and Irving right now for middle, and we were supposed to go to West Springfield to continue on in German. Our base school does not have German. I’ve been emailing back-and-forth to the transfer office in the basic messages so out of luck.
German is my daughter’s favorite class, all her friends have been together in it since first grade, and now she has to change in high school

If they had let me know, maybe we would’ve changed her mind about middle school and she is an anxious and shy child as well her friends are important to her

There’s no German Immersion at WSHS. Your special program ended. Back to base school. You should have established residency in the Orange Hunt boundary back in 2018 if you cared so much about the high school.

Bless your heart.

Anonymous wrote:I have the other post on this topic. My daughter started German immersion at first grade. We went to Orange Hunt for elementary, and Irving right now for middle, and we were supposed to go to West Springfield to continue on in German. Our base school does not have German. I’ve been emailing back-and-forth to the transfer office in the basic messages so out of luck.
German is my daughter’s favorite class, all her friends have been together in it since first grade, and now she has to change in high school

If they had let me know, maybe we would’ve changed her mind about middle school and she is an anxious and shy child as well her friends are important to her

There’s no German Immersion at WSHS. Your special program ended. Back to base school. You should have established residency in the Orange Hunt boundary back in 2018 if you cared so much about the high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the other post on this topic. My daughter started German immersion at first grade. We went to Orange Hunt for elementary, and Irving right now for middle, and we were supposed to go to West Springfield to continue on in German. Our base school does not have German. I’ve been emailing back-and-forth to the transfer office in the basic messages so out of luck.
German is my daughter’s favorite class, all her friends have been together in it since first grade, and now she has to change in high school

If they had let me know, maybe we would’ve changed her mind about middle school and she is an anxious and shy child as well her friends are important to her

What is your base high school that you’re zoned for Irving but not WSHS? Or did you get a transfer somehow to Irving for language? (I didn’t realize you could do that in middle school, I thought it was only HS).

Highly recommend Robinson if German is the priority! The German program is fantastic, the kids adore the teachers and they do really fun stuff.

Language immersion programs start in K or 1st grade. Kids can attend the LI program at a school that is not their base school. Those kids are allowed to attend the MS that offers the language immersion class. Up until this year, those kids were allowed to move the HS with the LI kids as well. I just texted with a friend who was out of boundary for the LI program we were in, they were not able to pupil place for language at the school that the base kids attend. They were able to pupil place for IB though. There was no language option.

That is horrible. There need to be exceptions for kids in LI.

West Springfield folks are really brutal.

Fortunately for them, the School Board is a bunch of ninnies and didn't move anyone out of West Springfield even though it was well over the 105% threshold that they used to kick kids out of a bunch of other schools.

Anonymous wrote:I myself would have been fine for Robinson in middle school if they told me we would’ve just gone over there for German. Irving was closer so we went with it because her friends were going there too. Now we’ve got a mess.

Were you not aware of the old transfer policy?

WSHS was never an option. And even if she was granted a transfer, she would need to reapply each year and it could be revoked at any time.

It is much less disruptive (even under the old policy which excludes WSHS as an option) to go back to your neighborhood high school or switch to Robinson for IB.

Your kid can't be the only kid who will need to find a different option.

Anonymous wrote:I myself would have been fine for Robinson in middle school if they told me we would’ve just gone over there for German. Irving was closer so we went with it because her friends were going there too. Now we’ve got a mess.

What is the zoned neighborhood high school?

Either go there, or get an IB transfer into Robinson.

I myself would have been fine for Robinson in middle school if they told me we would’ve just gone over there for German. Irving was closer so we went with it because her friends were going there too. Now we’ve got a mess.

Abuse of the transfer policy at closed schools like WSHS and lack of enforcement of established transfer policy by Gatehouse overruling both transfer policy and school principals to allow kids to use language transfers to get into closed schools is why the school board decided to revoke the program.

They should have kept the policy in place, and simply enforced no transfers into WSHS and other overcrowded schools, instead of shutting the whole thing down.

Weakness in enforcing rules as written is ruining another good program.

The Orange Hunt out of bound immersion kids should never have been given Irving and WSHS as a transfer option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have the other post on this topic. My daughter started German immersion at first grade. We went to Orange Hunt for elementary, and Irving right now for middle, and we were supposed to go to West Springfield to continue on in German. Our base school does not have German. I’ve been emailing back-and-forth to the transfer office in the basic messages so out of luck.
German is my daughter’s favorite class, all her friends have been together in it since first grade, and now she has to change in high school

If they had let me know, maybe we would’ve changed her mind about middle school and she is an anxious and shy child as well her friends are important to her

What is your base high school that you’re zoned for Irving but not WSHS? Or did you get a transfer somehow to Irving for language? (I didn’t realize you could do that in middle school, I thought it was only HS).

Highly recommend Robinson if German is the priority! The German program is fantastic, the kids adore the teachers and they do really fun stuff.

Irving is closed to transfers too.

No one should be transferring into Irving or WSHS.

Robinson should have been the closest option given for out of bound immersion students.