Foreign Language to Reach 5th Grade Sooner

The public school district administration has said "yes" to the Board of Education's offer to add the equivalent of 1.5 full-time teachers back into the budget so that they can start teaching Spanish in 5th grade during the upcoming academic year. But the accelerated phase-in will be measured. 

The plan is to make 2010-2011 a transitional year, with the first trimester focused on professional and curriculum development, instruction in seven homerooms in the second trimester, and in the remaining homerooms in the third trimester. Saxe Middle School principal Greg Macedo estimates every 5th grader will get 40 to 50 15-20 minute lessons. 

At their Jan. 11 meeting, the Board of Education asked the administration to look into to the possibility of extending the Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools Program to 5th grade next year at a cost of $93,750 for faculty and classroom materials. 

Previously the district had actually proposed cutting the equivalent of .4 of a Spanish teacher at the middle school only to reinstate the position in the 2011-2012 to accommodate the roll-out of FLES as originally planned. 

But Lizette D'Amico, World Language Coordinator for grades k-8, worried that going to a full-fledged program in 5th grade sooner would push the timeline for finding the right faculty and fitting the new lessons into the curriculum and class schedule at Saxe too much. So she, in collaboration with Macedo, Superintendent David Abbey, and Deputy Superintendent Mary Kolek, came up with the transitional plan, which the board accepted. 

"I spent the first seven years of my career fighting for this job... I would be just horrified if I gave you something that wasn't any good," D'Amico told the board in presenting the transitional plan Tuesday. 

D'Amico explained that, in accordance with the goals set out by the board, she's aiming to build a FLES program that other districts will want to emulate. "Darien has already called," she said. 

With the addition of the 5th grade lessons, New Canaan public school students from kindergarten all the way through high school will have opportunities to learn a foreign language.