After School Program Starter Kit & Questions

[Marc Escobosa]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about after school programs: to what degree are the "curricula" of after school programs governed by SFUSD... If we started a program, can we make it full immersion french? Are there restrictions (other than logistical) on duration/number of kids? 

I think it would be great to start a resource kit for starting after school programs with actionable materials, etc. I know we have discussed this on the board but just want to make sure we don't lose the momentum.

Thanks,

Marc

[Frank Murphy]

Hi,

As far as I can tell, after- (and before-) school programs are almost
totally independent from the district. (There are some Mandarin programs
that use district materials, and some schools have Child Development
Centers (CDCs) that are run by SFUSD.)

The bigger issue local: what are the principal and the PTA willing
to do. Some schools expect that all afterschool programs are free, so
that all students have the opportunity to do them, but others have some
free and some paid after school things. If the school site wants free,
then more work needs to be done up front to get grants, etc. A site that
is self-funding could start faster and get grants later.

I don't know, but I imagine that there are restrictions on duration
and number of kids per adult. In working with the EFBA, the restrictions
on duration have tended to come from the parents (aka, French class
conflicts with soccer or piano). And then getting enough classrooms is
also more contentious than you might expect. One challenge will be
parent expectations, too. Many parents are happy with casual, language
exposure classes, but personally, I want more. And balancing the needs
of parents with older kids versus the majority here who haven't started
kindergarten yet will be a challenge.

In terms of "full immersion" the problem is time. "Immersion" really
means that French is the language of instruction, so we'd have to do a
"math tutoring in French" or a "world cultures in French." I think that
could be interesting, but would be more work. All of the EFBA programs
have split the French-speaking kids into different groups than the
English speakers, but Sophie over at Flynn ES was talking about doing
their program in a more "two-way" manner, with French speaking kids in
the same classroom as non-francophone. But this would depend on having
enough francophone kids to make the balance work, of course.

Some kind of resource kit would be cool, but aside from a "potential
pitfalls" list, I'm not sure what else would be on it. Any ideas?

Frank

[Karyn Panitch]

I've been meaning to write to say I went to the meeting organized by the PPSSF about Dual Immersion programs last Tuesday. Margaret Peterson (the Multilingual Programs Administrator) spoke for about a half an hour explaining about the different kinds of language programs in the district and the benefits. There were about 75 people there I'd say and about half identified themselves as sold on immersion for their soon-to-be kindergarteners. She took questions for about another half and hour and I was the last question: "I know there's a move to get a French program started. Do you know how likely that is to happen next year or in 2011?" She explained that a group of parents submitted a proposal and she said they had met with the liaison (Frank)a few times and amongst themselves "several" times, that they are working closely with Norman Yee (the board member who approached us to keep him in the loop when we presented at the Board of Ed meeting)and Kevin
Chavez (the Immersion administrator). She admitted that it was pretty late and unlikely that it would start next year, but then she pointed out that De Avila (where the meeting was taking place) started Chinese Immersion in March, so... She also mentioned that other options besides immersion were being considered, like a FLES (Foreign Language Enrichment Program) option. Then 6 parents from various immersion programs spoke and took questions. After, I felt even more energized about my son having a bilingual education.

So, nothing too earth-shattering, but I'm glad I went and brought it up for all to hear. It was nice to hear (from her) that it was definitely being considered seriously.

On another note: Kazz and I bailed on the McCoppin tour as they have no free classrooms. I talked with a few teachers at New Traditions where my older son goes and asked them what they thought of trying to implement a FLES program there. The kindergarten teacher seemed mildly receptive as only 4 hours of the 6 of the kindergarten day is alloted for, so he would be able to find time for it. The second grade teacher didn't see how she would fit in anything else with the arts focus (music, art, dance all once of week). She didn't see where the money would come from and how we could do it without giving up some of what the kids already do. No one would be willing to give up one of the arts consultants for a language teacher.

That's all my news. Sorry it's so long. Good luck to everyone in your kindergarten searches.

Karyn

--- On Sun, 11/8/09, Marc Escobosa <mesc...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Frank Murphy]

Cool. Thanks for going to that. I also appreciate your update on
McCoppin and New Traditions. Are other parents here looking at any of
the Richmond schools (McCoppin, Sutro and Peabody)?

Frank

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