Foreign Language Program Discussion at The Roosevelt Island School PTA Meeting

At the PTA Meeting in P.S./I.S. 217 on Thursday, December 17th, we discussed again foreign language program for the lower grades at The Roosevelt Island School.   Parents are extremely interested in starting this enrichment activity in January 2010 - next month.  They expressed their thoughts to the PTA board, speaking specifically about various language preferences.  While Spanish was noted as the language currently taught in the upper grades of P.S./I.S. 217, the school has a long history of teaching French, and many teaching materials are still available to support this program.  Overall, parents at the PTA meeting stated that they do not have a strong preference for a particular language, as long as foreign language program is available for their children as soon as possible.

The proposed foreign language classes will begin early next year (January-February 2010) as an after-school program for grades from Kindergarten to K3, and our choices of languages currently include Spanish and French.  The PTA President is currently in the process of negotiating budgeting and scheduling issues with the school administration.  The PTA will survey the parent body to get a better idea of how we, the parents, want this program to proceed, and will share the final decision sometime before the end of the year.

It was great to see some of you at the meeting, your presence and active participation in the PTA is very valuable!