Conversion Plan Would Meet Demand for Specialty Schools

The Prince George's County Board of Education endorsed a plan last week to convert five underenrolled schools into specialized academies to create more space for its popular language immersion and Montessori programs.

The move is an attempt to relieve pressure on the long waiting lists that have formed for admission to academically successful programs such as the Robert Goddard and John Hanson French immersion and Montessori programs. In a presentation Thursday night, Superintendent John E. Deasy said the school system was able to meet 25 percent of the demand for language immersion programs and 10 percent of the demand for studio, visual and performing arts programs.

In May, the specialty schools were the focus of a debate over the "tag along" policy, under which siblings are automatically admitted to a school once a family wins the admissions lottery. Proponents say the policy helps keep siblings together; opponents say it unfairly restricts admission to the programs to a few lucky families. The school board sidestepped a decision by asking Deasy to come back with options that would make more seats available for the programs.

Deasy's plan would turn Columbia Park and Fort Washington Forest elementary schools into Spanish immersion schools, Thomas Claggett Elementary into a French immersion program, Matthew Henson Elementary into a Chinese immersion program and Benjamin D. Foulois Elementary into a performing and creative arts school.

All of the schools would serve students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

The conversions would begin in the 2009-10 school year, and students at the schools who were not enrolled in the programs would be transferred to nearby elementary schools.

In addition to the five schools marked for the conversion, the Judith P. Hoyer Early Childhood Center in Cheverly is expanding its Montessori program through sixth grade over the next two years.

Deasy said the changes would nearly double the number of seats available in the school system's specialty programs. School board members and residents were broadly supportive but raised questions about the location of the sites, the difficulty in recruiting specialized teachers, and how studies in a language such as Chinese or in performing arts would be carried on to high school.

"The program is a start," Deasy said. "It's not possible to make it perfect."

School Plan Wins Approval

It looks as if Hyattsville residents are going to get a new elementary school regardless of whether they like it.

The Board of Education unanimously approved a plan last week to spend $3.2 million to buy four acres next to Nicholas Orem Middle School, ignoring a request by Mayor William F. Gardiner to defer the decision and consider other sites for the 800-student elementary school.

There is little doubt that the growing city needs a new school, but Gardiner, City Council President Krista Atteberry and resident Rachel Magnuson voiced concerns before the board Thursday night about the site and the process by which the school system made its decision.