Shamus Ian Fatzinger/ Fairfax County Times
Gustavo Flores-Garcia, 9, works in his Foreign Language in Elementary Schools notebook during an all-spanish speaking class at Brookfield Elementary School.
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Bridging cultural divide through language
Parents hope proposed foreign-language expansion starts a new movement
Brookfield Elementary School parent Sandy Knox has seen the pendulum swing on a program she holds dear — Foreign Language in Elementary Schools.
In 2007, Fairfax County Public Schools planned to expand the program. Then, during the 2009-10 academic year, the school system — faced with a projected $176 million deficit to its $2.2 billion fiscal 2011 budget — considered eliminating the program from all 32 elementary schools that offered it, resulting in a one-time $2 million savings.
During the 2008-09 school year, Brookfield Elementary was among the last schools to add the language classes — two 30-minute sessions each week — to its curriculum.
Knox’s son Trevor, now a fourth-grader, was among the first students enrolled in the school’s program while he was in first grade. Within a few months of classes, Sandy Knox said her son began listening more closely and following directions in Spanish, the language chosen by parents when the program came to the school.
“When I first started trying to bring this to our school, I thought, ‘Well, this is cool;’ but the more I started researching it, I realized it’s more than cool,” Knox said. “It changes the way your kids think. … The way our world is changing, the way Fairfax County is changing, I do think [foreign language education] is critical.”
The foreign language programs are offered to about 15,300 students in grades one through six.
But just when Brookfield Elementary’s program was coming into its own, parents said they received word it was among cuts proposed by Superintendent Jack D. Dale in his budget recommendations to the School Board. The news also was a letdown to those parents at the 16 elementary schools that had applied to receive the program in the coming years.
What saved it from elimination were parent-advocates such as Knox, said Paula Patrick, coordinator of world languages in the Instructional Services Department.
Parents quickly formed an advocacy group, FLAGS — Foreign Language Advocacy for Grade Schools — and had as many as 100 parents speak at public hearings against the planned budget cuts.
“It was their advocacy that led the [School Board] to understand their passion for having all students learn a foreign language,” Patrick said.
Now that the economy has regained some steam, Dale is proposing adding the language program to more schools, putting the school system back on track to meet its goal of all students speaking two languages before graduating high school.
Dale’s proposal includes $900,000 to add the program to eight schools and adding the more intensive Foreign Language Immersion program to two more schools.
“The School Board’s Student Achievement Goals seek to have all students conversant in a language other than English,” Dale said. “To accomplish that goal, we knew the best time to begin learning another language is in the early grades.”
Which schools receive the language program and how it is piloted will be questions of parent interest and funding, school officials said.
Patrick said the plan is to implement the program at the eight schools in grades one through six, but the School Board could choose to implement the program in only grade one and expand it as students matriculate.
“Poplar Tree [Elementary School in Chantilly] had been pushing to have a FLES program but because of budget cuts we fell off the radar,” said parent Chelese McClain, who has a third- and fifth-grader attending the school. “This is a global marketplace, and that’s what we want to prepare our children for.”
McClain’s children were enrolled in an after-school foreign language program called Global Language Opportunity Benefiting All Learners, which meets once per week for 25 weeks and costs about $250. The after-school program was piloted at eight schools during spring 2011.
Although after-school programs are better than no foreign language offerings, they are not an option for every family, McClain said.
“I think there were a couple of barriers to it. No. 1, people didn’t have time to be there after school. … No. 2, some parents couldn’t afford it,” she said.
Fairfax County Public Schools offers several foreign language programs. About 3,400 students are enrolled in language-immersion programs offered at 12 elementary schools. In those programs, students receive math, science and health instruction in languages such as Japanese, French, German and Spanish. The remaining classes are taught in English.
Students are chosen for the program through a lottery system and parents must transport students to their school if it is outside of their child’s normal attendance area. Two other language programs — Foreign Language Experience Program and Global Language Opportunity Benefiting All Learners — are offered to students after school, for a fee.
Oakton Elementary School parent Ann Storck said she hopes schools that have had after-school programs receive some extra consideration for being among the eight schools that will get the in-school language program.
The discussion on expanding the in-school program began during the 2005-06 school year, said School Board member Kathy Smith (Sully District).
“The original goal was to have it at all schools in seven years,” Smith said. “There is a need for this in our county. I do think it is inequitable in our county right now and we need to have it [available] for all kids. …
“When budget times were tough, we said, ‘Well, let’s just keep it going as it is [rather than cut or expand it],” Smith said, adding that although expansion is proposed, it is not a done deal. “This is something I will be advocating for.”
Knox said for her and FLAGS members, the proposed expansion is an opportunity to continue advocating for making foreign language courses available to all students in the county school system.
Fellow Brookfield Elementary parent Deb Marciello said the in-school program has allowed her son Brian to attain fluency in something he would not normally have had the opportunity to.
“My son, when he leaves here, he’s going to have an advantage over any Loudoun County kid [because of the language program],” Marciello said. “If the goal of Fairfax County is to produce the best students in the state or country, it’s a no-brainer to keep this program going.”
Parents have an opportunity to do the same during a budget public hearing scheduled Monday night before the School Board beginning at 6 p.m. at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church.
hhobbs@fairfaxtimes.com