By Maddie Nerad
Staff Writer
Of the 11.2 full-time equivalents, which equal a teacher that instructs five periods, that were cut at the March 6 Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting, 1.5 full-time equivalents were French teachers in the district. The tentative “pink slips” given out to half of the MBUSD French Department are unreasonable considering necessary education this program provides its students.
The Board approved the resolution to notify approximately two-dozen employees of their release next year. According to MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews, the district aims to continue to offer French based on student demand. Thus, the program could potentially phase out over the next few years. Rather than cutting jobs from such a small department, the district should distribute its cuts proportionally among the other language programs, especially Spanish.
French is an official language of 33 countries, second only to English. It is commonly used in medicine, business and international relations. French is a relatively easy language to learn and teaches students very necessary thinking and analytical skills.
There are only four French teachers in the district, and of the four, only two are full-time. These cuts would eliminate half the French teaching staff and possibly leave students with increased class sizes of well over 40 students; this will be harmful to student-teacher relationships. Foreign languages demand more class participation because students must learn to speak, as well as read, write and comprehend. Individual attention in the classroom is priceless, and it would be limited by these cuts.
Foreign language classes are demand-based, meaning that the number of classes depends on the number of students who sign up. As students are still adjusting their schedules, it is hard to know how many classes will be needed, but according to Costa French teacher Lauri Gonalons, based on the current numbers, it would be nearly impossible for teachers to meet the demand for 2013-14 students.
In the past, the district has underestimated the number of students who were going to sign up for French and handed out more pinks slips than necessary. Handing out pink slips forces teachers to look for jobs elsewhere. According to Gonalons, last year this caused the loss of AP French teacher Marie-France Sam, who after four years of job uncertainty took a position at Palos Verdes High School where she was guaranteed a full-time position.
The disproportionate number of French teachers has some students concerned that the district’s goal is to eventually eliminate the French program and replace it with the quickly growing Mandarin Chinese program that will be added to the Costa curriculum next year and is already in place at the Manhattan Beach Middle School. According to Gonalons, the Foreign Language Department at Costa feels strongly that it is fiscally irresponsible to implement new programs of Chinese when there is not enough funds to support existing programs.
According to the Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State, Spanish only takes 576 to 600 class hours to learn where Mandarin Chinese takes over 2,000 hours. Chinese is a more difficult language due to its thousands of characters and the fact that it is tonal, which means the meaning of words are based off of the speaker’s tone. Although Chinese is a beneficial language to learn, students will not have enough class time in high school to become proficient in the language.
MBUSD has underestimated the number of students who are interested in French and the advantages that the language itself provides. If the district does not act quickly to rescind the current pink slips, the district’s French program will vanish, leaving many students at Costa without its valuable and necessary educational opportunity.
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