Northbrook School District 28 officials will be  asked to look at lengthening the school day if it expands the  world language program to lower grade levels.

Administrators are scheduled to present a report  to a Committee of the Whole  board meeting Thursday, suggesting Spanish be taught beginning in first grade.

“Now, the question becomes, if we want to add world language in first grade, how do we do that?” said Superintendent Larry Hewitt.

Because expanding the language program could mean adding instruction time, administrators also will suggest lengthening the school day by 40 minutes, Hewitt said.

Board members won’t make a decision on either measure during the Committee of the Whole meeting, and there’s no guarantee they would opt to move the world language initiative forward at a later meeting, Hewitt said.

But if they do, the new Spanish lessons for first- through fifth-graders could mean the school day would last 7 hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Hewitt said.

Currently, the 6 hour, 20 minute day runs from 8:55 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and is the shortest among area districts, Hewitt said. Others’ days tend to run for 6 hours and 30 or 40 minutes, he said.

“Our board obviously has to wrestle with this,” Hewitt said.

Most of the additional time,  about 30 minutes,  would be reserved for Spanish instruction, he said. Five minutes would be for passing between classes, and another five minutes would be for a longer lunch and recess period.

“One of the things we heard from parents is their children don’t have enough time to eat,” Hewitt said.

The decision to extend the world language program to include younger children stems from a yearlong study that involved the input of parents, teachers and administrators.

Administrators cited studies showing children have a better global perspective and perform stronger in other academic areas with more foreign language instruction.

“The short answer is, it’s good for the brain,” Hewitt said.