Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look I don't really have a dog in this fight but to the PPs raising a stink about immersion kids having to move schools from their classmates, I doubt that argument is much of a winner around here. BCC amalgamates the very kids who have been thrown in a blender of elementary options, and most of us have watched as our kids' friends have gone off to different schools (NCC/CCES/BE) en route there. So no sympathy from any of us that your kids' cohort can't stay together from K through 12 undisturbed - it's not the norm here already.

Keeping the kids together helps foster a more challenging academic environment as they will be taking Spanish class at more advanced levels with their peers.

Translation: Keeping the kids at B-CC keeps them away from our lower performing cluster.

Please don't kid yourself.

Immersion program students excel in their language ANYWHERE in the county as evidenced by the french immersion stories.

I also don't have a dog in this fight, but I wonder: if a lot of parents in BCC feel the immersion kids overcrowd their high school, is there any movement afoot to have the immersion program transferred to a different cluster? I ask this in good faith and not to rock the boat. It seems to me that at least some of the BCC families benefit immensely from having such convenient geographic access to this program and they would probably fight to keep it (and maybe that's a bad assumption, I honestly don't know). And if they get this benefit, it seems a little harsh to turn around and kick the out of boundary families out as they approach their final years of school rather than treating them as if BCC is their home cluster, given how they've been part of it for so long.

I for one would support changing the COSA policy to tighten it across the board in any school that is over crowded. And, no, removing immersion alone won't solve the problem - but if I can take care of a chunk of a problem in one fell swoop, of course I am going to take it. 20-25 kids per year is 80-100 total. That will go a long way toward reducing over-crowding.

I have a (non-immersion) freshman at BCC in Spanish IV, and guess what? It's a mixed class of immersion/regular kids. There is no special immersion Spanish IV. In fact, even at Westland in grades 6&7 there are only 2 classes that are immersion, a special Spanish class and world studies. Their education is not that unique. You had a special program for a while, and that is what it is, but it's over at 7th grade.

I am sorry that it doesn't work to keep your kids here. And yes it will be an adjustment for your families, but it doesn't work.

And why should my kids, who live here, have to attend a grossly overcrowded school to accomodate kids who don't live here?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's glaringly missing to me is not everyone lives in the cluster where the immersion is located. If you live in Damascus and have a kid at RCF who wants to continue immersion they can't do that at the local middle school. If they do complete immersion at Westland or SSIMS that's where their "friends" will be. If they go back to Damascus they will A) not know most kids B) not be able to take higher level Spanish which was the point of being in Immersion in the first place.

Are there many children from Damascus at Rock Creek Forest, which is in Chevy Chase? (Are there any?)

If they're not that many what's the issue?

The issue is that this is a straw man argument if there aren't any kids from Damascus at RCF ES, due to the fact that Chevy Chase is a very long way from Damascus. In fact all 3 Spanish immersion elementary schools are a very long way from Damascus.

You have no idea what a straw man is.... Any kid in montgomery count living anywhere can apply to Immersion programs. Buses run everywhere in the county to pick them up and drop them off. Schedules are readily available. If no kids in the area attend schedules adjust accordingly. I kknow first hand many people who live in Rockville, Boyd's, clarksburg and Gaithersburg who attend the programs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's glaringly missing to me is not everyone lives in the cluster where the immersion is located. If you live in Damascus and have a kid at RCF who wants to continue immersion they can't do that at the local middle school. If they do complete immersion at Westland or SSIMS that's where their "friends" will be. If they go back to Damascus they will A) not know most kids B) not be able to take higher level Spanish which was the point of being in Immersion in the first place.

Are there many children from Damascus at Rock Creek Forest, which is in Chevy Chase? (Are there any?)

If they're not that many what's the issue?

The issue is that this is a straw man argument if there aren't any kids from Damascus at RCF ES, due to the fact that Chevy Chase is a very long way from Damascus. In fact all 3 Spanish immersion elementary schools are a very long way from Damascus.

Anonymous wrote:Look I don't really have a dog in this fight but to the PPs raising a stink about immersion kids having to move schools from their classmates, I doubt that argument is much of a winner around here. BCC amalgamates the very kids who have been thrown in a blender of elementary options, and most of us have watched as our kids' friends have gone off to different schools (NCC/CCES/BE) en route there. So no sympathy from any of us that your kids' cohort can't stay together from K through 12 undisturbed - it's not the norm here already.

Seriously -- get over it...
BCC or otherwise...your kid is getting a quality education...
Make the best of it...
It is not going to make or break your kid intellectually, socially, or emotionally if they are not at BCC

Anonymous wrote:Look I don't really have a dog in this fight but to the PPs raising a stink about immersion kids having to move schools from their classmates, I doubt that argument is much of a winner around here. BCC amalgamates the very kids who have been thrown in a blender of elementary options, and most of us have watched as our kids' friends have gone off to different schools (NCC/CCES/BE) en route there. So no sympathy from any of us that your kids' cohort can't stay together from K through 12 undisturbed - it's not the norm here already.

Keeping the kids together helps foster a more challenging academic environment as they will be taking Spanish class at more advanced levels with their peers.

Anonymous wrote:PP again. To turn it around:

"Why should this large group of students from all over the county, attend one of the most overcrowded high schools at the very edge of the county?"

It's actually not a large group of students - only about 20-25 students per year are out of boundary students. The remaining immersion students already living within the BCC cluster. In fact, MCPS grants a larger number of COSAs (over 40) for students to attend BCC for other reasons, and even permits a number of DC students (10 or more per year) to pay tuition to attend BCC. Maybe those COSAs should be addressed first before blaming the immersion students for the overcrowded conditions at BCC.

BULLETIN: THE IMMERSION PROGRAM ENDS AT MIDDLE SCHOOL

Fight for high school continuation. Any other argument to stay in the B-CC cluster is disingenuous.

Look I don't really have a dog in this fight but to the PPs raising a stink about immersion kids having to move schools from their classmates, I doubt that argument is much of a winner around here. BCC amalgamates the very kids who have been thrown in a blender of elementary options, and most of us have watched as our kids' friends have gone off to different schools (NCC/CCES/BE) en route there. So no sympathy from any of us that your kids' cohort can't stay together from K through 12 undisturbed - it's not the norm here already.