Officials from the World Language Academy are looking to expand the school next year, which they say would involve little cost and few staff changes.

Principal David Moody, who was joined by parents, brought a proposal to the Hall County School Board Monday night to create a combined elementary and middle school at the World Language Academy campus.

The school board approved World Language to request an amendment to its charter from the state to include middle school offerings.

Beginning in 2011, the school would have sixth grade course offerings, and add an additional grade level each year. By 2014, World Language would be a pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade school.

"We know the language and cultural needs for kids need to continue through the middle school years and that's one reason we wanted to offer additional opportunities here," Moody said.

At World Language, students are encouraged to learn a second language through either the dual language immersion or world language study. He said the sixth-grade class would continue to build students' fluency in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and possibly some additional languages.

Superintendent Will Schofield said the proposal made sense.

"We knew the time was coming when we would have to answer the question of how to meet (the students') needs," he said. "I think this is fantastic."

Moody said space may become an issue in the future, but for next school year, the facility will have room for a sixth-grade classroom. He predicts the school will serve about 740 students next year. He said he expects there will be few costs for 2011.

"We have our staff in place," Moody said. "We have Chinese and Spanish teachers and we have middle-grade certified teachers on staff."

Parent Kurt Hansen, whose child is enrolled in pre-kindergarten at World Language Academy, said the program will help children become competitive at a global level one day.

"I think it was a great move. Language will be a very important skill set in the future," he said.

Earlier this year, Hall County Schools also launched a program at Da Vinci Academy to offer intensive language study to sixth-graders. Moody said a large majority of students at World Language transfer to Da Vinci after elementary school.

Sally Krisel, Rigor specialist for Hall County, said students used a software learning-language program called Rosetta Stone to study Mandarin and Spanish. However, the program wasn't as rigorous as school leaders had hoped, Krisel said.

"It was essentially phased out," she said.

Though the World Language Academy is only in its third year of operation, Moody said he expected the school to progress at the speed it has. He expects the school and district will develop a plan for a possible expansion next year.

"We're excited to keep our current students on campus," he said.