Oregon and Monona Grove Add Elementary Spanish

Gena Kittner:

wo Dane County school districts will be saying "hola " to new language programs at the elementary level this fall.

In the Oregon School District, Spanish will be taught in kindergarten through fourth grades starting this fall, with fifth and sixth grades added in the fall of 2009, said Courtney Odorico, Oregon School Board member.

Teaching only Spanish is a scaled-down version of what the district originally considered -- teaching a different language such as Japanese, Chinese or German -- at each of its three elementary schools.

"I think parents were a little worried about not having a choice, " Odorico said. Also, "there were very few certified teachers in Chinese and some of the other languages we were looking at in the state. "

The School Board approved the program at a meeting Monday.

Spanish also is the language of choice for elementary students in Monona Grove, where the School Board approved the program earlier this month.

The parent response was overwhelmingly for Spanish, said Bill Breisch, curriculum director for the Monona Grove School District.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 1, 2008 6:01 AM
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