Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY COUNTY- During the Dec. 3, 2024 school board meeting, the Administer of Gifted Programs for MCPS, Helen Fontinos, provided an update on the new Dual Immersion Language program for MCPS.
In a meeting in September 2024, Fontinos presented a proposal for a Dual Language Immersion track for MCPS, starting in elementary school. The program would promote bilingual literacy and immerse students on a voluntary basis in another language that they could carry with them through life. Currently, with research being done by Fontinos and her team, the program would begin in pre-k and kindergarten. Fontinos sent out a survey to parents and the community regarding this program and according to her presentation, received 600 responses. The survey was sent out in both English and Spanish. Fontinos said 90% of the responses received back were in favor or said maybe to considering enrolling their student/child into the Dual Language Immersion program.
The parents who said yes, according to the update presentation, said yes because they would like their student to have access to another language, to help communicate with their friends in school, or have had experience with this type of program in other districts and found it beneficial. Those who said no, according to Fontinos’ presentation, said no for various reasons like not needing a second language at home or feeling as though the funds potentially spent on this program could be used elsewhere. Those that said maybe seemed to mostly want more information on how the program would work once it’s in full swing and how that might impact their student’s learning.
Fontinos’ estimated cost for the implementation of this program would be to allocate $223,000 for it to succeed- $26,000 of this will be allocated for materials needed for the course, $190,000 would be allocated for staffing needs such as hiring bilingual teachers, but Fontinos said if they are able to hire internally, $60,000 of that $190,000 would not need to be used. The $190,000 estimated budget for staffing needs is allocated for if they have to recruit outside of the MCPS school system. The other funding that would be needed would be applied to community engagement and improvements towards capital like classrooms and such.
This program would start in Price’s Fork Elementary as the student body as well as community population has the highest percentage of Latinos. The goal is to implement this in the 2025-2026 school year with two classrooms starting in kindergarten. As this progresses, it will be two kindergarten and two first grade, so on and so forth until middle school.
