Spanish Immersion students should be given the opportunity to continue studying the Spanish language (that they began taking in Kindergarten) into their middle school years.  

Per the school district in 2010, some of the guiding priciples for a middle school transition plan were to maintain relevant and meaningful immersion instruction, as well as to maintain a student grouping arrangement that maximized student Spanish input/output opportunities. Click here to see the Spanish Immersion transition to the middle school plan (refer to page two for these guiding principles):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/je7jnhc8bioo6kv/Spanish%20Immersion%20Transition%20Plan.pdf

In December of 2010, the district listened to the parents (via a survey and parent information meeting) and responded by continuing Spanish into the 6th grade. Now, the Board has made the decision to eliminate this part of the program, without giving the parents a chance to be heard.

Please sign this petition if you would like to see a reversal of this decision or at least have your voice be heard.

"Just like traditional English kids get every benefit available to better their education, Spanish Immersion kids should be NO different! Maintenance in middle school for them is necessary for their growing education. Please don't take that away from them." -Amber Cabral

"Continuity of immersion programming into middle and high school is necessary for the maintenance language proficiency. Language learning is cumulative." - Robin Robb

"Our program is 40-years-old and each year we have a wait list for the Spanish and Japanese tracks, grades K-5. We've always offered one Spanish immersion class at the middle school but this year we are adding a second, the minimum to be considered a true dual language program. If your program is removed at the secondary level, I urge you to band together to vote out the school board members who made this decision." -Jenny Manriquez

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***Click on the link below to see Dr. Shibler's memo:

http://www.rockfordschools.org/Resources/PDF/RPS/Middle%20School%20Spanish%20Immersion%202012.pdf

***School funding needs to be a priority with our legislators, and we need to let them know! State Representative Peter MacGregor is hosting office hours on Friday, May 25 from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at Mr. Burger located at 5181 Northland Dr. Grand Rapids, MI 49525. We encourage everyone to attend and share their ideas and concerns about school funding with him!

Here is a link to his facebook page to leave comments:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/State-Representative-Peter-MacGregor/159626334159825