Parents at Aviano fighting
to retain foreign-language classes
By Gary J. Kunich, Aviano bureau
Gary J. Kunich / Stars and Stripes
Susan Marshall teaches a combined Spanish class to seventh through 12th graders Tuesday at
Aviano High School. Because the school is losing 1.5 extra teaching slots, seventh graders
won't be allowed to take a foreign language next year. |
AVIANO AIR
BASE, Italy — Foreign languages are scheduled to be cut for seventh-graders at Aviano
High School next school year, but parents and teachers are waging a campaign to keep the
program alive.
It’s
not a Department of Defense Dependents Schools requirement, but Aviano has offered foreign
languages to seventh- and eighth-graders the past two years and counted it toward the high
school graduation requirement. Now, Aviano will be forced to cut the slots for those who
taught the classes. Those teachers didn’t have permanent positions and were hired on
a yearly basis.
"This
past year, one school was supposed to have 1,000 students but that enrollment didn’t
materialize, so the slots were put in schools that had underprojected," said Jennifer
Beckwith, superintendent of Italy schools. "In Aviano’s case, [they were given
the slots because] they were trying to establish a middle school program. Those slots
aren’t available anymore."
Doug
McEnery, the high school principal, said seventh-graders who took a foreign language this
year will be allowed to take a language in the eighth grade.
But Adolfo
Leon, a teacher for the Talented and Gifted class at Vajont Elementary — part of the
Aviano school system — who has a daughter going into seventh grade, said it should be
offered to everyone.
"I
think it is disgraceful," he said at a School Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday.
"I have been teaching for 18 years for DODDS, and I have not been associated with a
school that didn’t offer two languages to seventh- and eighth-graders."
He said he
took up the battle during the 1999 school year, when his son wasn’t going to be able
to take Spanish in the seventh grade.
"Two
years ago, things changed because there were a lot of parental complaints," he said.
"I don’t know what is going to happen, but with parental requests we can make
this happen."
Leon has
the support of McEnery, who cut the slots.
"It’s
a great program, and I wished I could keep it," McEnery said. "I don’t have
a choice, and I don’t think the district has a choice. In the downsizing of the
federal government, DODDS is not immune."
McEnery
said that when the school added foreign language for seventh- and eighth-graders two years
ago, the goal was for those students to take more advanced classes beyond the required two
years. Instead, he said, the first two years of classes were packed and there was a steep
drop-off in upper-level foreign languages. Even so, he said, he would like to keep the
classes if extra slots become available in August.
He said
another way to get extra slots is if the Department of Defense Education Activity
recognizes Aviano as a bona fide middle school, as opposed to lumping the seventh and
eighth grades with the high school. If that happens, the school could get more slots.
Beckwith,
the superintendent, said it’s impossible to tell if DODEA will recognize Aviano as a
middle school or grant the extra slots.
"My
staffing comes from headquarters from DODEA. I have to staff 13 schools and not just
one," she said. "I would like to give every school everything they want, but I
just can’t."
For now,
students in the seventh grade will be placed in what DODDS calls "a wheel"
— a different elective class each semester, such as drama one semester and computer
technology another.
"That
means they’ll just get the scraps, whatever is left over from the high school,"
said parent Kristy Berlington. "Children of military members sacrifice a lot as it
is. This opportunity to learn a foreign language is outstanding, but now it’s been
slammed in the face of sixth-graders going to the seventh grade."
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