By Jamie Kelleher
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees revoked this May French teacher Timothy Hirsh’s pink slip for the 2013-2014 school year, allowing the Mira Costa French Department to continue standard class sizes and two-teacher staff until the end of the next school year.
The board made the decision to keep Hirsh due to the large amount of students enrolling in the program next year.
“It’s all driven by the number of student requests for classes,” Costa Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter said. “That’s how we derive the schedule for the year.”
According to Hofreiter, Hirsh will be considered for tenure by mid 2014-15.
“I don’t consider this a victory,” Hirsch said. “The only thing I consider a victory is the fact that I get to be back here next year, at the place that I love, teaching really great kids.”
Although Hirsh’s position was saved for the upcoming year, the two-teacher staff, including Hirsh and Laurie Gonalons, may not last beyond 2013-14 due to MBUSD budget constraints.
“I’m really happy that Mr. Hirsh’s pink slip was taken away because he is a great teacher,” junior Julia Arciga said. “He is innovative, engaging and makes learning fun and fresh. He also manages to keep a good balance between work and play. I know that he genuinely cares for all of his students.”
Gonalons and Hirsh visited Manhattan Beach Middle School on several occasions this year to convince students to enroll in the French program. Current high school students helped spread awareness of the French program to tell incoming seventh graders of the benefits of taking French.
“The best case scenario would be having two great teachers like Mrs. Gonalons and myself at Costa for a long period of time,” Hirsh said. “Together we are able to work and grow as a team so kids can enjoy French as much as they have been enjoying it since I’ve been here.”
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