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School board lays down foreign language pathways

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With a formal vote this week, the Glendale school board established the paths that students in dual-language immersion classes will take through high school.

Of all the high schools, Hoover High will be home to the most languages. The school will be home to French, German, Italian, Spanish and Korean dual-language programs.

Hoover will also host an Armenian dual language program and the district’s Armenian heritage program where students study that country’s culture and literature.

Students who matriculate to Hoover High will come from language programs offered at Roosevelt or Toll.

Although it is many years before current elementary students involved in dual language programs will get to high school, Principal Jennifer Earl is looking forward to seeing how the program evolves.

“I’ve been a supporter of [dual-language] all along,” she said. “I’m excited to keep building on what works at Hoover already. I look forward to the challenge.”

Glendale school officials have been plotting the future pathways for the dual-language programs for months.

“Like everything else, we will be evaluating as we move forward,” Supt. Dick Sheehan said, adding that the programs may eventually call for further expansion or have the potential to not succeed.

Glendale High will eventually host Armenian, Japanese and Spanish language programs.

Crescenta Valley High will provide the Korean program for those students who matriculate to the school from Rosemont Middle School and have studied it while at Monte Vista Elementary.

While students spend at least 50% of the day speaking and learning in another language in dual-immersion programs, the classes at the middle school and high school level will have students take an advanced language as an elective.

They may also be granted a chance to take a science or social studies course in their foreign language.

Roosevelt Middle School will be home to the Spanish students who will matriculate from Franklin and Muir elementary schools, as well as the students in the French, German and Italian programs currently at Franklin.

Toll Middle School will host the Spanish, Korean and Armenian programs from Edison, Keppel and Jefferson elementary schools.

Wilson Middle School will house the Armenian program from R.D. White and the Japanese programs from Dunsmore and Verdugo Woodlands.

The ongoing popularity of the programs has brought hundreds of students from out of the district over the years.

Glendale school board member Greg Krikorian said he wanted to assure the community that with the expansion of the programs through high school, “we will be balancing technology, digital arts, music, athletics, the general P.E. classes for our kids — to stimulate them — but without hurting the dual language programs.”

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.


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