Foreign language classes are coming soon to all Chesterfield County elementary schools, but some people are wondering at what price.

Seven elementary schools offer Spanish, French or Chinese this year, and six more will offer either Spanish or Chinese next fall. School officials hope to have all 38 elementary schools offering a language by the 2012-13 school year.

But with only so much time in a school day, offering a language means something has to give.

That something turned out to be the weekly computer resource time. It's where students learn keyboarding and Internet use and work with software that complements other subjects such as math and social studies. The other resource classes -- music, art, library and physical education -- will be unaffected.

Robious Elementary was the first school to offer a language -- French -- five years ago.

"The real hurdle was getting the faculty to buy into it," said Robious Principal Anne O'Toole, because it meant that computer lessons fell to her classroom teachers to incorporate into their other subjects. "Five years ago, I still had a couple of [teachers] who could hardly e-mail."

Until then, Robious and every other elementary school used a technology-resource assistant to teach computer skills. The lessons were created by Chesterfield's technology department.

But as more schools begin offering languages, the resource assistants aren't needed. The county is turning to technology integrators to help classroom teachers use computers in their daily lessons.

"All of the [computer] lessons that are taught can be taught by the classroom teacher through integration," Chesterfield technology director Lynda Gillespie said.

But the one question on some teachers' minds is, "how one more requirement can be added to [teachers'] overcrowded schedule," said Carole Marable, a teacher at Clover Hill Elementary School, which does not currently offer a language.

Gina McKenney echoed Marable's thoughts on teacher workloads, saying that teaching technology and everything else "will be overwhelming to the average classroom teacher."

McKenney is a library media specialist at Crestwood Elementary and a former elementary classroom teacher for 23 years in Chesterfield.

She suggested eliminating the library resource time instead of computer time.

Having a specific library time "requires us to teach research and reference skills in isolation, when students do not actually need to use them," she said. But not having a designated time means librarians could work with teachers throughout the day when the students need the library for projects or research.

How soon all the schools get a language class depends on the budget, said Edward Pruden, assistant superintendent for instructional administration.

While those budgeted to get a class in 2008-09 are on track, "we're not sure we can proceed" for 2009-10, Pruden said. The resource assistants teach the same number of students as other resource teachers, but they're paid at a step above a teacher's aide because they're not certified teachers. The technology integrators have higher salaries.

For the current school year, the board budgeted $816,791 for 37 full-time resource assistants, and $3.4 million was budgeted for 59 full-time integrator positions.

School divisions are required to have one for every 1,000 students.

Pruden said schools get to choose which language they want to offer, and that most school choose Spanish is "just a function of the fact that it is increasing in importance in our community and our country."

Of the 33 percent of middle school students taking a language this year, most -- 26 percent -- are taking Spanish. Another 6 percent are taking French, 1 percent German and 1 percent Latin.

Chesterfield isn't the only area locality to offer languages in elementary schools, though its plan is the most far-reaching.

Henrico has offered German at Springfield Park Elementary for several years, and there's a Spanish pilot program at Lakeside Elementary this year. Hanover doesn't offer any at that level though school officials said it's something they're looking into for the future.
Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or hprestidge@timesdispatch.com.