The Elmbrook School Board continues to face intense pressure to reinstate foreign language instruction at its six elementary schools, despite the need to trim $2 million from next year’s budget.

At last week’s School Board meeting, attended by about 45 parents and foreign language teachers, parents pleaded for foreign language to be taught for 90 minutes a week as part of the regular school day curriculum. But elementary school teachers testified that the day is already too full and other classes would suffer.

The parents’ suggestion would require creating the equivalent of 3.5 new teaching positions in 2005, costing about $273,000, and adding more positions in 2006, bringing annual costs as high as $390,000, according to a district study group report.

School Board members made no decision Tuesday. Most said they could not justify the expense, given the district’s financial deficit but also appeared torn after listening to passionate arguments for the program from parents and one of their own members, Steve Schwei.

In the end, Superintendent Matt Gibson offered to come up with a budget plan next month that would cut other items to make up the cost of the foreign language program, so that parents might better see the impact of such a decision.

Until two years ago, Elmbrook fourth- through sixth-graders were exposed to French, Spanish and German in school. The program was eliminated in a round of budget cuts. But Gibson said the district also felt the elementary program failed to adequately prepare pupils for foreign language instruction in middle and high school.

Since then, interested children have been attending foreign language clubs after school, with expenses paid for by parents. But Marilyn Pritchard, a parent representative for the Elementary School Day Study Group, said participation is fading and parents have complained that these clubs aren’t effective.

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