By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton school district will delay until September 2015 having kindergarten classes at Community Park Elementary School in which children will be taught partly in English and partly in Spanish.
The decision was based on the thinking of a committee of teachers and administrators that is looking at what is known in education circles as a dual language immersion program. The study group has been meeting for the past few weeks.
"Because of the transformational aspect of the program, they concluded that more time was needed for visits to existing dual language immersion programs and for other planning work at Community Park in order to design an excellent program," said assistant Superintendent of Schools Bonnie Lehet by email Friday.
The district had left open the door to starting in time for this September. But the delay gives the district more time to work out logistics and train teachers, another school official said.
"The worst thing we could do is to rush into an implementation of a great program before we’re ready," school board member Andrea Spalla said Friday. "Everybody wants to make sure that when it’s implemented, it can be successful."
The decision to delay the program was announced at the school board meeting on May 27. Other school districts in the country have adopted similar programs. Princeton plans to follow the 50/50 model, so children are taught half the time in each language. The intent is for Spanish to be used when teaching children their regular coursework; it’s expected math and science will be taught in Spanish. Parents will have the option of putting their children into the program or choosing regular kindergarten for them instead. The goal is to have students continue in dual language immersion as they go to higher grades at Community Park School, home to a melting pot of nationalities.
In all, about 36 students are expected to participate.
"There will not be a formal application process or requirement that kindergarten students have a knowledge of the Spanish language," Ms. Lehet said. "Beyond kindergarten or first grade, students new to the district would not be able to participate in the dual language immersion program without a certain level of Spanish language."
