K-5 World Language Program to Begin in March

After months without taking a foreign language, students in elementary school will get to start learning to speak Spanish again in March.

Last year, the district decided that the way students were learning Spanish was not at a level it should be when they got to Middle School, so administrators scrapped the entire program and decided to bring in a new program.

But it was more complicated than originally thought to get the program started and administrators decided that they needed to get input from World Language teachers in 6-12 grades before making a decision.

World Language was originally supposed to start in the fall, and then the district was going to start a pilot program starting in January, and have now settled on a program that begins in March.

"I'm sorry about the delay. I take full responsibility for that," said Superintendent Dr. James Crisfield. "But it was more complicated than we originally thought."

The disrict is spending $14,000 on the three-month trial of the Rosetta Stone Classroom Education Program, and will spend roughly about $75,000 on implementing the program next year if it works well, he said.

"This is not the Rosetta Stone you see at the airport," Crisfield said. "This is the education program used in a lot of schools around the country. And has tools for teachers."

There's an online component to the program as well that allows students to work at their own pace and begin speaking the language quickly.