School District to Receive $900,000 Language Grant and New Principals Arrive

Elementary students will now receive foreign language instruction, as the school district moves to the FLES (Foreign Language Elementary School) model. According to Sara Richmond, president of the New Rochelle Board of Education, this will encourage exposure to foreign languages at an earlier age.

The program will use bilingual teachers already teaching at the city's elementary schools. The district's Mandarin program, which was piloted in the middle schools, will be expanded to the lower grades and additional Mandarin instructors will be added, said Richmond.

"The idea is to give more exposure to languages for students not already in one of the language academy programs," Richmond said.

Parents said kids are responding well to the changes.

"My fourth-grader came off the bus beaming the first day of school," said Rebecca Edwards, parent of students at William B. Ward and Daniel Webster elementary schools. "Her enthusiasm was due in large part to finding out that she'll be learning Mandarin this year. She's thrilled and so are we because it means the whole family will be exposed to a skill that will enable us to better connect with the world."

The district is able to provide the expanded Mandarin instruction at no added taxpayer expense through a federal grant of $900,000 over three years. Richmond said the program was spearheaded by a committee composed of Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Korostoff, teachers, board members and parents.

"We're really working to increase our grant money and federal funding to expand our programs," Richmond said, "and to use existing staff to increase our offer without increasing the costs to the taxpayer."

In other school news, Jefferson Elementary School and William B. Ward School will have new faces in the principal's office starting this Fall, said Richmond.

Kimmerly Nieves, former assistant principal at Jefferson Elementary, will be joined by Jose Martinez as the school's new assistant principal. Martinez formerly served as administrative dean at Isaac E. Young Middle School.

At Ward School, Franco Miele will begin his tenure as principal Oct. 1. He most recently served as principal of Sheafe Road Elementary School in Wappingers Falls. He also has experience as principal as assistant principal of the Roy C. Ketcham Senior High School. 

"For Ward School, we only looked at people who had experience supervising large buildings," Richmond said, citing the size and the multitude of programs at the school. "We are very excited about him. He's enthusiastic and is very focused on literacy. He'll be a great match for Ward School."