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French Immersion Remains Concern

By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
5/27/10
The issue involving the choice between two public-school elementary programs – English or French – is facing intense scrutiny this year.

The issue – which in recent weeks has pitted a group of parents against the superintendent – was the focal point of the May 18 School Committee meeting, which saw the Citizens Speak portion of the meeting transformed into a public forum for parents.

Nearly two-dozen parents who chose the French Immersion program for their first-grade child are upset because they will not be able to participate in the program in their neighborhood school.

School officials say there is insufficient space at the Collicot and Cunningham elementary school complex on Edge Hill Road to house another French class, which was the request of parents. They will have to enroll their child at the Tucker Elementary School across town on Blue Hills Parkway for French.

Responding to concerns associated with a shift in the French student-placement policy, Superintendent Mary Gormley initially added two “auxiliary” French Immersion classes, one at Cunningham and one at Tucker. Gormley said the schools on Edge Hill Road lack the space to house more classes without disrupting other programs. The original plan was to house both auxiliary classes at Tucker before parents balked.

“The Tucker had the space,” said Gormley, explaining that the assignment policy was created to foster “the future of every school.”

“We do not have another classroom at the Collicot or Cunningham,” she said.

Parents of children entering the first grade have the choice between French Immersion – in which all subjects are taught in French for the first two grades – and the English program, which offers some Spanish.

A high number of incoming first-graders next year means that more families than ever have had to make the choice between the program option and the neighborhood school, school officials say. This year, about 60 percent of families chose French and 40 percent chose English, and the upcoming first-grade class of 340 students is the most in recent memory, officials say.

That fact, coupled with limited public-school resources, has led administrators to reshuffle some students across the district to accommodate the French program.

“The goal of the Milton public schools is to provide two high-quality programs,” said Assistant Superintendent John Phelan, explaining that this year a lottery process to fill the French seats left about 7 percent of the families choosing the program – about 26 in all – without the home-school option.

That happened after the auxiliary class at Cunningham was created for students living in that neighborhood. However, after that class was filled, 21 of the 26 remaining families interested who chose French Immersion were asked to enroll in the extra class across town at Tucker. Those parents could choose either the English option in the neighborhood school or French at Tucker. Three of the other families already live in the Tucker neighborhood.

The other two families not selected in the lottery are from the Glover neighborhood.

Many parents brought their concerns to the School Committee. There was a proposal put forth by the parents to move the second auxiliary class from Tucker to either Cunningham or Collicot.

“We’re all here to minimize this disruption as much as possible,” said Ali Rogerson, whose daughter would have to attend the French Immersion at Tucker.

According to Rogerson, “not all children were treated the same” in the selection process, which included a lottery after students with a sibling already in the school were grandfathered. It is a long-standing practice in the student assignment policy.

Gormley said that it is important for siblings to have the opportunity to attend the same school. “Siblings were very important in this process,” she said. “It seemed fair.”

Rogerson, however, said she considered it a “disadvantage” to her daughter, an only child, in the selection process. “It’s extremely unfair. Seventy-five percent [of students in the French Immersion] were grandfathered in,” she said.

Julie Creamer said having her son go through an adjustment from Collicot to Tucker to be part of the French Immersion program is “not a gamble I’m willing to take.”

Blue Hill Terrace Street resident Moira Connelly, however, had a different take. She said she already “drives all over town,” as she has one child at Tucker and a younger one in the preschool program at Collicot. She said she considers both great schools and worth the extra trip, adding, “If you don’t want to go to Tucker, it’s your loss.”

Gormley said students often adjust quickly to a new school and grow to “feel a part of that school.” She stressed there may continue to be reshuffling as families move or drop out of the program, meaning other students may be allowed to fill their home-school seats.

“Life can change from now until September,” she said.

School Committee member Kristan Bagley Jones said there have always been placement issues with French Immersion, since it was introduced as an alternative to English in 1987.

There were two French classes housed at Cunningham back then. Next year, there will be two classes in each of the four elementary schools.

“I don’t know how we solve it,” said Jones. “This is a choice program and we can’t provide it to everyone in their home school, unfortunately,” she said, referring to French Immersion, which only one other community in the state offers.

Committee member Mary Kelly went a step further, saying she has felt “for many years” that foreign language should not be introduced into a student’s curriculum until at least the third grade. She said she feels that all students uniformly should learn the fundamentals first in English so that they are “all at the same developmental level.”

Parents were asked to make a choice between the French and English programs by May 21.