At last night’s School Committee meeting the World Language Committee presented program options for the French Immersion program going forward. The committee, co-chaired by Asst. Superintendent John Phelan and Gracie Burke, Director of World Languages, was formed by Superintendent Gormley to define and assess different strategies for delivering the French Immersion curriculum across the 4 elementary schools, identify their respective strengths and weaknesses and any potential cost savings that might be realized.

The committee was composed of school administrators, parents and teachers and also included School Committee member Kristen Bagley-Jones. They evaluated 4 program options and listed a 5th but did not formally evaluate it.

They were:

• French partner schools in which two schools partner together and consolidated classes for a specific grade in just one school.  Students assigned to a school in grade 1 will stay with that school for their 5 year elementary experience.For example, year 1 all Tucker nad Glover students enrolled in grade 1 French immersion would attend the Glover School and stay at Glover through 5th grade. Year 2 all Tucker and Glover first graders in French would enroll at Tucker and remain there through 5th grade.
• French Continuum Strands in which classes are consolidated across the district into 1 school. “Among the four schools the French Immersion will be housed in one school per grade.”

These two programs are similar in their strengths and weaknesses. Both provide predictability and have the potential to realize savings (Partner 1 FTE and Continuum 2 FTEs). However, families could be stretched across two schools, two PTOs, and these options may not address sustainability issues.

• Lottery/Capping of French Immersion imposes a fixed number of seats for French Immersion per class and school. If more students enroll than seats are available then a lottery would be drawn. This system also has predictability as well as stability. The problem with it is that Mary Gormley is not in favor of it and the results of the survey that the committee conducted indicated that “the majority of parents do not support capping.” It will not realize any immediate financial savings and their may be legal issues to consider when implementing a lottery
• Alternate assignment would designate a fixed number of classes in each school. If more students sought to enroll in French Immersion than could be accommodated an auxiliary class would be formed at a location determined by the superintendent.

Mr. Phelan noted that parents indicated they were satisfied with either program they chose. The primary concern expressed was how to manage growth. There are currently 341 kindergarten students. Mr. Huban asked if the costs were the same for both programs. Phelan said, “French has been a bargain to the town.”

The Committee also recommended that the fifth option, Grade 5 integration” be followed up on. (We believe) this option would be a co-taught type of approach in which the English and French classes are integrated. It has potential it realize both budgetary and educational efficiencies according to the committee and should be looked at on a year by year and school by school basis. They also recommended reconsidering reinstating FLES in grade 1. FLES is the Spanish class.

The goal was to give Gormley options with associated strengths and weaknesses. Phelan said, “We feel we met the goal.” We will link to full presentation when it becomes available.

Ms. Gormley will report her thoughts at the 4/13 School Committee meeting and discuss with parents at the Grade 1 Information Night scheduled for April 14th.

In other business:

• Dr. Erick Ask presented the Safe Routes to School Program. This encourages students to walk and bike to school. You can learn more here. He received warm applause at the end of his presentation. One piece of information he relayed was that the paths on Turners will be opened on 4/20 (north side) and  5/10 (south side.
• The Finance subcommittee continues to review the costs of full day kindergarten. There will be a budget presentation on 4/12 at the Cunningham Collicott and on 4/15 at Glover.
• There will be a public hearing on Consolidated Facilities on 4/28. Mr Huban mentioned that there are three articles on the warrant regarding Consolidated Facilities. We understood there were only 2: one to have Town Meeting vote to continue the effort and another to seed the department with $138,000. We are seeking clarification on the third article.