Kids in this year’s school-time CARE program can expect a language class option with a little more community flavor.

This year’s Community, Academic, Recreation and Enrichment program will offer a language class in Creole, which almost all native Cape Verdeans speak. CARE Director Jane Fondulis said she thought it was important to try to include in the after-school program, because of the large population of Cape Verdeans in the community. She hopes the students of Cape Verdean descent who choose to learn Creole can bring it home to their families.

“It's interesting for our students to learn more about the community in which they are living,” Fondulis said. “It’s exposing them to what’s right in their own town. It … supports the Cape Verde population. A lot of them have lost that language, and … it’s a benefit to bring it back.”

Fondulis said the class will be offered at both Decas Elementary School and Minot Forest Elementary School. She is still searching for a teacher for the class, but she also anticipates bringing in several community members of Cape Verdean descent to speak to the students.

“I know [a woman] who would love to come in and talk with them,” Fondulis said. “She is an older woman, so she has great stories.”

Like other offered language classes, the children will also learn about the culture from which the language sprang. Fondulis said she could even see the class turning into a service learning project, “just like we did this year with anti-bullying.”

“We usually start with an idea, and it just snowballs from there,” Fondulis said.

Fondulis said the class size is limited to 12 students, but she will seek out another teacher, if more students end up signing up for the class. She also said students outside the CARE program could take classes on a fee-based eight-week course. If there is enough interest at the middle school level, Fondulis added, she would try to seek out a Creole teacher for higher grades, too, but is trying to stick with existing staff.

“As we go, if students want to continue, we may need to recruit staff who have more experience teaching language,” Fondulis said. “Our staff right now is knowledgeable and comfortable with [kindergarten] through 5th grade.”