SHARON, CLARK, SHARPSVILLE, SOUTH PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP — Students in two Mercer County school districts will have the chance to study Mandarin Chinese next year.

On Wednesday, Sharpsville school directors unanimously voted to hire Uwu-Chun “June” Chen, as a part-time teacher for the course.

Sharon school directors will vote on Ms. Chen’s hiring Monday and Superintendent John Sarandrea expects she will be hired.

“We’re really excited for this opportunity for our students,” Sarandrea said.

Student surveys showed there was an interest in the language, Sharpsville school director Deneen Joseph said.

“One-third of the people on the planet speak Mandarin Chinese,” Sarandrea said. “That’s mind-boggling.”

It helps that China is the most populous country on the globe and an economic powerhouse.

Sarandrea said Sharon is looking to have students start studying the language in third or fourth grade, as studies show that the earlier children are exposed to a new language the better they pick it up and the longer they retain it.

And it won’t be an elective like Spanish or French at Sharon, Sarandrea said.

“They’re all getting it,” he said, adding that exposure to a foreign language has a positive effect on other cognitive abilities.

Sharpsville’s board approved adding the class to the middle and high school course guide.

The next step for the two districts will be figuring out the logistics of sharing the teacher, Sarandrea said. They could decide that she would spend half each day at one district and half at another or teach a full day at Sharon certain days and the rest of the week at Sharpsville, Sarandrea said.

Ms. Chen’s Sharpsville salary hasn’t been set because the district is negotiating a new teacher’s contract.

She’ll get half the starting salary for teachers with a master’s degree from Sharon, which is about $20,500. Sarandrea said the districts still have to decide who will provide Ms. Chen’s benefits, but the school whose plan she isn’t on will reimburse the other district for half the cost.

It’s a concrete example of district’s working together to do more while saving money, Sharpsville School Board President David DeForest said.

It’s one of the “things we can do working together,” DeForest said. “I hope we can find others.”

The idea to offer the language to local students came from local businessman James E. Winner Jr., Sarandrea said. Winner got area superintendents together to talk about the global influence of China.

“The more we thought about it the more we agreed with his idea that it would be a great idea and leg up for all the kids in the valley that were exposed to it in the long run,” Sarandrea said, adding that he and Sharpsville Superintendent Mark Ferrara met with Winner Thursday. Winner is also offering financial support and assistance, contacts and help securing Ms. Chen’s visa and other paperwork, Sarandrea said.

Ms. Chen is originally from Taiwan and taught English there before being hired to teach Chinese at Glendale school district north of Altoona, Sarandrea said.

Glendale was discontinuing their program when Sarandrea and Sharpsville Superintendent Mark Ferrara happened to run into that district’s superintendent at an unrelated function and he mentioned it in passing, Sarandrea said. It was almost like “divine intervention,” he said.

Sarandrea said he and Ferrara traveled to Glendale and watched Ms. Chen in the classroom and were “thoroughly impressed.”

“One of the things we noticed about June is that her teaching style and her mechanics are excellent,” Sarandrea said, mentioning that she seamlessly transitions from one exercise to another.

They were so inspired by her skill that Sarandrea said he and Ferrara hope to travel to Taiwan next summer to see how teachers are trained there, noting the “wonderful reputation” education has in Asia.

Herald staff writer Tom Davidson contributed to this story.