Japanese Language Immersion Program Watch

For more than 10 years several schools in Fairfax County have offered a Japanese Language Partial Immersion program, where children spend half their day learning the curriculum using only the Japanese language.

This program, along with other language immersion programs offered in Fairfax County schools, is one of many elements that draw parents to bring their children into the Fairfax County Public School System (FCPS) when relocating to the greater Washington DC area.

Recent overcrowding issues threaten this program.

In Floris Elementary School, in Herndon Va, the Japanese Immersion program is scheduled to begin winding down in school year 2006-07. As a result, parents of rising 1st grade children, wanting to offer their children this program, will be relocated to Fox Mill Elementary School.

Fox Mill Elementary School has recently experienced overcrowding, to the extent that two classes are to be moved into trailer-based classrooms and a third class will occupy the school's art room. See the companion article “Overcrowding in Fox Mill Elementary School” for more details.

It is essential that FCPS administrators do not repeat the mistakes they made at the start of school year 2005-06, when they faced a sudden influx in the student population at Fox Mill Elementary School. Those mistakes were:
1) A failure to notify parents of existing students about the overcrowding, its causes and the impacts on their children in a candid and timely manner
2) A failure to consult with stakeholders in the school, namely parents and neighbors, regarding the decision making process for the introduction of trailer-based classrooms in the school
3) A failure to adequately plan for the likelihood of the school population increase
4) A failure to ensure adequate classroom space was available to accommodate new arrivals at the school, when they arrived.
5) Allocating children to classroom space that was clearly never designed for such purposes, namely the bay areas that form the nucleus of each classroom wing, (also referred to as a BEI or POD), and finally
6) A general lack of open and honest dialog with parents at the school.