Potomac Elementary’s Chinese Immersion Program may bring more children into the school in August.
“I think, for this coming year, we’re seeing if we can expand the program on-site,” said Reginald Felton, vice president of the Board of Education (District 5).
Currently the Immersion program has one class in each grade level except fifth, which has two. Until this year, all of the spots had been reserved for students at Potomac Elementary. Beginning with this school year, two spots each in the Kindergarten and first grade had been opened on a lottery basis to students from other schools in the county.
About 20 students participated in the countywide lottery last year for the four spots which opened this school year.
One possible method of expansion would be to make more or all of the seats in the program open to a countywide lottery.
Another might be to add a second class and open it up to out-of-boundary students.
Immersion classes are capped at 25 students. Adding the second class for kindergarten and first grade could mean 25-50 more students next year.
Enrollment is down at Potomac, although still over capacity, said Felton. So Felton says that maybe the school could be asked to increase its enrollment again, though not to the peak levels it saw recently.
“You have been able to house this higher number before,” he said.
Felton stressed that either option would not be a long-term solution to allowing more students into the program. “It’s an interim approach that’s under consideration,” he said.
“The program started with a federal grant that provided money for training and the development of materials,” said Iran Amin, coordinator of Immersion Programs for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Now, the grant has run out, although a new federal grant provides funding to all of the county’s immersion programs, There is no funding source for Potomac alone.
The funding issue drives some of the reasons given about the need for expansion. “You can’t talk about a county-wide program and then be restrictive to the kids in the neighborhood,” Felton said.
Parents do not complain about a loss of exclusivity in their arguments against expanding the program.
“In concept, it’s a great idea because it’s a great program,” said Diana Conway, whose children are in the immersion program. “I think, in a complete vacuum, the idea of expanding the program is wonderful.”
But Potomac should not be asked to deal with the extra children, keeping its enrollment well over its capacity, Conway said.
“Either of these proposals would bring 25-50 cars to Potomac Elementary in August,” said Janis Sartucci, Cluster coordinator for the Churchill Cluster PTA. The Board of Education does not provide transportation for out-of-boundary students to attend immersion programs. “It would back up traffic on River Road.
Sartucci also pointed out that while enrollment is down to 584 the school’s capacity is still only 488, a number that will drop to 441 when all day kindergarten is implemented.
The number of students at Potomac Elementary is set to drop after a planned addition is completed at Seven Locks Elementary. After the addition, students would be re-districted into Seven Locks, likely to be a contentious process. But by opening the immersion program to out-of-boundary students, enrollment would rise again, Sartucci said. “You’ve now defeated the purpose of putting the addition on Seven Locks,” she said.
“Personally, I’d love to see the program expanded, but not at our school,” said Julie Dobson, president of the Potomac Elementary PTA. Dobson and Sartucci suggested moving the program to another school which has capacity.
Either the whole program could be moved, or just a few grades could be moved, said Sartucci. “You could do K-1-2 in one school and 3-4-5 in another,” she said.
Moving to another school would be difficult for some Potomac parents, since they would have to provide transportation to the other site.
Conway said she would be willing to travel some distance, but that some parts of the county are just too far away to drive through traffic. ‘I wouldn’t do that to myself, or to my kids,” Conway said.