The Hillsborough School Board gave the go-ahead Tuesday to begin a pilot program in elementary schools next year to teach children how to converse in Spanish, using volunteers from the community if necessary.

 

No money, though, came with the challenge, which asks administrators to help educators secure grants and donations to address what School Board member Joe Newsome called a critical need.

 

“I saw it as a business person,” he said. “Had I kept my (Plant City) drug store four years ago . . . my next hire would have to have been a bilingual person, because of all our Spanish-speaking customers.”

 

Fifty-seven elementary school principals said they would be interested in starting a pilot program, according to a district survey. That could include anything from a formal class to a bilingual teacher’s aide hosting a morning television program for 15 minutes two days a week, Newsome said. No district funds were committed to the program because money is tight, he said.

 

“We’ll open this up to the schools and see what they come up with,” said Dorothy Carregal, Hillsborough’s supervisor of foreign languages.

 



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