Schools to offer more foreign language classes

Parli italiano? Some Boca Raton elementary and middle school students will learn Italian for the first time next year.

By the time they get to high school, their skills will be perfetto.

Next year will be “World Language Expansion Year” in Palm Beach County schools, with new tracks added for students to learn Italian, Japanese, French and Chinese in elementary school and continue the languages in middle and high school.

The expansion marks an effort to prepare students for international careers and distribute foreign language lessons equitably among all 180 public schools in the county.

The district already has programs for students to learn Spanish and American Sign Language, and a small number of schools offer Chinese, Latin and Haitian creole. That’s similar to schools in Broward and Miami-Dade, which offer the same languages as well as German and Portuguese on some of their campuses.

In Palm Beach County, every high school and 70 percent of middle schools offer at least one foreign language. There are 22 dualschools, in which students learn in English half the day and in a foreign language the other half.

In south Palm Beach County, Sunrise Park Elementary and Logger’s Run Middle are set to start their Italian classes next year, with students continuingon to a program at West Boca High. Japanese lessons also will begin at Logger’s Run and West Boca; an elementary school in that track hasn’t been selected.

Students in central Palm Beach County will learn French beginning as elementary school students at Barton Elementary in Lake Worth and continuing at Woodlands Middle. These students will have a choice of four high schools that already have French programs: Atlantic in Delray Beach, Lake Worth, Park Vista and Santaluces. C’est