BRUNSWICK — School officials are considering exposing Brunswick students to a broader worldview by teaching a second language early and often.

The dual language program would offer students an immersive second language education in either French or Spanish starting in kindergarten, said Alexandra Fish, a teacher at Coffin Elementary School. Students would begin instruction taught 90 percent in the second language and 10 percent in English.

Each year until fifth grade, the second language component would decrease by 10 percent until there was a 60/40 split, Fish said.  By the time the students are entering junior high, they could take classes in their second language or begin to learn a third. Upon graduation, students could have a foreign language studies diploma and a seal of bi-literacy.

Fish told the Brunswick School Board Wednesday that learning a second language helps broaden a child’s worldview, improves memory and cognition and promotes flexible thinking.

According to Lenore Williams, principal of Lyseth Elementary School, a Spanish immersion program in Portland, the hardest part for their program has been finding qualified teachers. Fish said she anticipated that being one of the challenges in getting Brunswick’s program off the ground as well. The Spanish consulate and the French embassy both offer assistance with materials, professional development and staffing.

For the dual language program, the next steps are to create a budget, identify existing grants, work out a curriculum and create a position to oversee programming.

New academy

The district is also planning a new visual and performing arts academy, which would also offer different “tracks” for students interesting in pursuing an arts diploma endorsement. Despite being called an “academy,” art teacher Cory Bucknam said that students would remain at their respective schools — pulling them out would be detrimental to some of the already well run artistic ensembles, like band and chorus, in the district.

Brunswick programs are already approaching the “gold standard” of arts education, Bucknam said, but need an additional push to get there. As the value of arts in the classroom is increasing, Brunswick is also continuing to brand itself as an artistic community, she said, noting that in Cumberland County alone there are over 4,000 people making their livelihoods through the arts.

In the proposed program, junior high school students would be able to choose an artistic “pathway” that would center their elective class schedules around their chosen pathway. In high school, along with the identified “track,” the school would also offer interdisciplinary courses: for example, an anatomy class geared toward chorus that might teach how the body is used when singing or geared toward art that might aid in figure drawing.  

In both levels there are gaps that need to be filled with additional classes, faculty (including an academy director) and facilities, Bucknam said. She hopes that, in the future, if a new junior high school is built, it might be equipped with better performance spaces than the current building.

Bucknam anticipates that the district could roll out the diploma endorsement and pilot arts integration within a year, but that it would take two years to add new faculty, change the junior high schedule to accommodate the pathways program and to put leadership in place, among other tasks.

Another program slated for change is the multi-age program at Coffin School, which combines first and second graders in the same class.

Teacher Eric Funderburk and his committee members would like to see this expand, touting the program’s benefits such as building lasting relationships between students and teachers and allowing room for growth for students who learn in a nonlinear fashion and show intelligence in different ways. Older children will often take on leadership and mentoring roles with the younger students, he said, and it also allows students to take ownership of their learning.

The goal is to add additional multi-age classrooms in 2020 when the new Kate Furbish Elementary School opens. The committee hopes to find two more interested teachers to join, he said.

School board member Sarah Singer said that it will help to have students in the same grade levels all within one building. The multi-age group for first and second graders operates out of Coffin School, a kindergarten and first-grade school, while second graders are at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School. It will be good to not have the age cohorts split, she said.

While representatives of all three programs provided updates during a Wednesday school board meeting, the board has not decided when or what action it may take.

hlaclaire@timesrecord.com