Post updated at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7:
Lawrence High School students who have completed the first section of German will be able to advance their studies this year in online classes, but the language won’t be offered otherwise.
District spokesperson Julie Boyle said LHS students who have completed German 1, 2 and 3 can choose to continue on an online platform this year. Only German 2, 3 and 4, which are sophomore-, junior- and senior-level courses, will be offered during 2024-25.
Counselors are notifying those students of their option before school begins, she said.
Boyle said in May that LHS students’ enrollment in the course dropped, affecting the school’s staffing allocation for the 2024-25 year. LHS administrators decided to eliminate the full-time equivalent teaching position assigned to German as part of budget reductions.
“The district has not cut German,” Boyle said via email. “Student choices made during course enrollment selection drive staffing, and ultimately, determine which classes are taught from year to year. With limited funds, our district attempts to maximize staffing to best serve our students. LHS student course enrollment did not warrant having a full-time, certified teacher of German on staff.”
Lawrence Virtual School and Free State High School had been considering ways to potentially fill in the gap. But Boyle said the virtual German courses at LHS will not be a collaboration with LVS as the district is considering a “different online platform than the one LVS uses.”
Another language program, Latin, faced the same fate as German in recent years. As part of 2022 budget cuts, 10 full-time teaching positions were cut, and one of them was the Latin teacher shared between LHS and Free State.
Boyle said Free State still has a full-time teacher assigned to the position but that they teach German part-time based on student enrollment.
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Note: This post has been updated based on corrected information from the district.
Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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