Janesville School District decides to drop Deutsch
JANESVILLE — City middle school students now taking German language classes will have to switch to French, Spanish or Chinese next fall.
High school students taking German this year will be able to continue through German 4, according to documents requested by The Gazette.
The change is because of declining enrollments in German classes, said Kim Ehrhardt, director of curriculum for the Janesville School District.
A half-time German teacher will no longer be needed after this school year, but Ehrhardt said the district probably won’t save money because students will chose other languages, and that could mean another teacher would be needed in Spanish or French, for example.
Potential costs savings were mentioned in district documents, however.
It’s also been hard to find a teacher to fill the half-time position in middle school German, Ehrhardt said.
The district this year hired a non-certified German teacher for the half-time job, documents indicate.
Janesville School District administration decided Dec. 13 to phase out German. The school board was informed of the move Dec. 22. Middle school parents were sent a letter this week.
No other phase-outs or course eliminations are contemplated, Ehrhardt said. However, other courses could be canceled for next year if not enough students sign up for them.
Students sign up this month for next year’s courses.
School board approval is not required to phase out German. Board policy 6230 requires board approval only when curricular changes would mean the addition or reduction of 1.5 or more staff members.
The last time the district phased out a language was in the 1990s. The language was Latin.
Mandarin Chinese is offered in two of the city’s 12 elementary schools and two of the three middle schools.
The current Chinese program started in 2009 in grades 3-5 at Harrison and Roosevelt elementary schools, although there was limited Chinese instruction as early as 2007.
The board has allowed Chinese to expand into Marshall and Edison middle schools as Chinese-language students moved into higher grades.
Foreign language enrollment
Current enrollment in French, German and Spanish in Janesville public schools:
Middle schools
Spanish: 782
French: 243
German: 121
High schools
Spanish: 1,399
French: 340
German: 107
Jan 10, 2012 at 8:21 a.m.
Suggest removal
I took French and really wish I'd taken Spanish.
Jan 10, 2012 at 4:32 a.m.
Suggest removal
Thanks for killing off a bad program! What's next, arts and music? I sure hope the really important subjects like the football and basketball teams don't go without proper funding!
Jan 9, 2012 at 3 p.m.
Suggest removal
Whoa...guess it isn't the PC thing to do to suggest that learning Spanish isn't the hot-ticket educational item!
But that's okay...if a paper as leftist as this one allowed every post I wrote on their blog, I'd think something was wrong!
Jan 8, 2012 at 11:58 a.m.
Suggest removal
Ach Du Lieber!!!
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.