Specialty programs at Prince William County Schools

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Published: July 31, 2008

SPECIALTY PROGRAMS

The school division has more than a dozen specialty programs offered at all levels of schooling.

Each of the county’s high schools offer a specialty program, including the Center for Environment and Natural Sciences at Freedom High School, the Biotechnology Center at Osbourn Park High School, the Center for Fine and Performing Arts at Woodbridge High School, the Center for International Studies and Languages at C.D. Hylton High School, the Cambridge Program at Potomac and Brentsville District high schools, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at Gar-Field Senior and Stonewall Jackson high schools and the Center for Information Technology at Forest Park and Battlefield high schools.

Nine middle schools in the county also offer specialty programs. They are: the Mathematics and Science program at Graham Park, Marstellar and Rippon middle schools, the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme at Godwin, Stonewall and Beville middle schools, and the Foreign Language program at Fred Lynn, Lake Ridge and Parkside middle schools.

Additionally, eight elementary schools offer special programs. Spanish is offered at Enterprise, Mullen, River Oaks and Tyler elementary schools, French is offered at Lake Ridge and Signal Hill elementary schools and a mathematics and science specialty program is offered at Belmont and Sudley elementary schools.

The school division is also in the process of bringing the International Baccalaureate Programme to eight elementary schools. The program is slated for Antietam, Buckland Mills, Dumfries, Ellis, Featherstone, Rosa Parks, Victory and Mary Williams elementary schools.

For more information about special programs, call 703-791-7400 or the individual schools.

TRADITIONAL PROGRAMS
Two traditional schools that concentrate on discipline and high academic standards operate on the west and east ends of the county. At both schools, students are required to wear uniforms and parents must agree to volunteer for a specified amount of hours each year.

Pennington School, at 9305 Stonewall Road in Manassas, is attended by firstthrough eighth-graders. In the east end of the county, Porter Traditional School is attended by first through seventh-graders at 15311 Forest Grove Lane in Woodbridge.

After submitting their applications, students are selected to attend the schools through a lottery process.

DISTANCE LEARNING
Prince William County Schools also offer a distance-learning program, . The online high school offers 19 courses in many different subjects, including health and physical education. Students can enroll in one course during the fall, spring and summer sessions to earn full course credit. The virtual school was created to offer an alternative to students who are prefer an online learning environment to a traditional classroom setting for some courses.

ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL
The school division also has two alternative schools for middle and high school students who have come from their base schools for academic, disciplinary or attendance reasons.

New Dominion Alternative School, at 8220 Conner Ave. in Manassas, serves middle school students from Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park. New Directions School serves high school students from all three school districts at 8886 Rixlew Lane in Manassas.

GIFTED EDUCATION
Gifted Education programs are offered for students who are identified as potentially gifted beginning in elementary school.

Prince William students also can apply to the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology, a Governor’s Regional School in Alexandria.

SPECIAL EDUCATION
Prince William offers special education services to students who fall into 14 categories.

Federal law dictates that children between the ages of 2 and 21 be provided a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. For more information, call 703-791-7287.

ESOL

The division also provides English for Speakers of Other Languages classes for any student for whom English is not the primary language and whose English is not adequate for the student to function successfully in regular subject areas.

ESOL students receive an average of one to three hours of English instructional support each day. Bilingual support services, including translating and interpreting for school purposes, are available on an as-needed basis. ESOL students represent approximately 120 languages and cultures. For more information, call 703-791-8706.

There is an ESOL parent outreach program in all ESOL schools called Parents as Educational Partners, or PEP, which provides basic school information to new immigrant families. Classes are in English and Spanish. Adult ESOL classes and citizenship are also offered by the adult education department. For more information, contact 703-791-7357.