Input on Marblehead/North Shore and Schools offering French

[Tahlulah]

Hello. We are considering moving to the North Shore area from NY state and I'm looking for input please. We are interested in Marblehead especially. We have a 1.5 year old and a four year old and want them to have french in school from kindergarten on. I see this is an option if we go the private school route, but we may not be able to afford this. Can anyone tell me if there is such a thing as french taught in public school from such an early age? This info seems very hard to find online. I have seen mention of two immersion public schools in the Boston area but they sound as though they could be tough to get into and might be in danger of closing any year...and not near the North Shore. My husband needs to fly in/out of Logan regularly so Marblehead would be great, not too close but easy to get to the airport. We would also like being on/near the water and in an historic area. 

Another question I have:

-Will the smell of the Swampscott Fish House ever go away? That area seems like it could be promising too, but when we visited the smell was awful. But I don't know if thats an everyday thing?

THANK YOU for your help!! Molly

[ben'smama]

Hi Molly-

Don't know about the fish smell in Swampscott, but I can tell you a bit about Marblehead...

There is, at present no foreign language learning at such a young age in the public schools in Marblehead, although there has been a lively debate about it for the time my kids have been going to the schools there.  There is a Montessori school, the Devereaux School, that teaches French from the time the kids start at the school until 3rd grade, which is the highest grade at the school.  I have friends whose children went to Devereaux for their early years and then continued with a private French class after they began in the public school.

Marblehead is a great place for the commute to Logan!

I hope this helps a bit!