NEWINGTON - Less than a week after Superintendent of Schools Bill Collins presented a proposed $74 million school budget, the Board of Education pored through a lengthy list of need areas that included the long-sought world language program expansion, considered high priority this year.

       The Board went through the professed needs for world language, English, education technology, art, reading and STEM, among a slew of other areas, in its first budget workshop last Monday night in the Helen Nelson meeting room.

       Adding to the district’s world language program has been on the radar for some time. During past budget cycles, the Board has discussed adding teachers and even pursuing course offerings in Mandarin Chinese. A combination of budget constraints and other priorities shifted these initiatives to the backburner until now.

       To start, the Board is looking to add four Spanish language instructors at the middle school level. That’s projected to cost a collective $320,000. The goal is to offer Spanish, currently designated as a â€�"special” course, as part of the core curriculum by the start of the new school year this coming August, said Deputy Superintendent Pamela Muraca.

       Each middle school level will get two of the new teachers, Muraca said. Over the long run, the district would like to implement kindergarten through sixth grade world language while expanding the options available to students at Newington High School, she said.

       â€�"At the high school they have a choice of languages,” Muraca said. â€�"They can continue Spanish or they can enroll in Latin or Italian.”

       They’d like to add French, but currently don’t have the staff for it, Muraca said. Long-term goals include adding more languages. Muraca noted that at least one student had requested courses in German.

       â€�"We’re not saying German would be the language, of course, but we do need to think about having other languages available,” she said.

       The district recently brought in a world language coordinator, courtesy of vacated positions that were not filled. Its own personnel, as well as consultants from other districts, recommended the middle school initiative as the logical next step, Board members said.

       â€�"We have heard that all that effort will not really get us where we want to be until we back into putting language on the core in the seventh grade,” said Board Chair Nancy Petronio.

       Board member Steve Silvia asked if it is possible for the district to add other languages such as Mandarin and Arabicthrough online courses. He also offered to pay a $110 budget area reduction, following two rounds of cuts to the proposal that took place after its inception, himself.

       On the former, the district used to do something to that effect in what is known as â€�"distant learning,” according to Muraca. Newington shared courses with Glastonbury at the time, but the district has since shifted away from that, she said.

       At a budget meeting held the following week, Silvia questioned whether or not the seventh grade language initiative could be justified financially, while expressing his support for such a program, given enough room in the budget for it.

       He said that he’s looking ahead to necessary cuts later in the budget process, noting the monetary size of the initiative.

       â€�"I see the merits of the program,” Silvia said. â€�"But my issue is that it’s a lot of money, and what would we drop in place of this? What doesn’t have value to our students? I’m not a teacher, but I only have finite dollars--I have to make a choice.”

       Collins’ budget represents a proposed 5.9 percent increase. The salary and benefit-driven proposal includes other long-sought Board initiatives, such as the establishment of a preschool program for typically developing four-year olds and the addition of high school-level biomedical STEM academy courses--a continuation of curriculum at Martin Kellogg Middle School.

       â€�"I think it’s our charge to put out to the community what we think our students need,” said Board Member Josh Shulman. â€�"If we cut this out at this stage, we’ve conceded that we don’t need it. I certainly don’t expect 5.9 percent fully funded, so we’ll have decisions to make anyway.”

       Keeping such initiatives in the picture at this stage of the process also gives parents an opportunity to weigh-in on student needs, with a fuller vision of the Board’s long-term objectives presented to them, Shulman said.

       And on the language program, they have already had input, Petronio said.

       â€�"This is something parents of the community said was important to them,” she said.