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Volume 58 Issue 6 | April 10, 2023
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News: pg. 2-4 Opinion: pg. 5-7 Features: pg. 8-10 In-Depth: pg. 11-13 Sports: pg. 14-16
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Lynbrook High School, 1280 Johnson Ave., San Jose, CA 95129
World Language classes to be reduced in coming years
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY AMY LIU AND CATHERINE ZHOU
Japanese and Honors language classes to be eliminated
Lack of district communication sparks controversy in community
BY JASMINE RIHAL
STAFF EDITORIAL: THE VOICE OF THE EPIC
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n March 20, FUHSD announced that all level four Honors language courses will be eliminated by the 2024-25 school year due to declining enrollment. Each school’s World Language department will also be downsized to offer only three languages. As the smallest language program on campus, Lynbrook’s Japanese program will be phased out by 2028, leaving only the French, Spanish and Chinese programs. The announcement raised concerns in the community that this proposal was made due to budget issues, but the district has stated that declining enrollment was the core reasoning for their decision. For the past few years, FUHSD has experienced high rates of declining enrollment, mainly due to the Bay Area housing crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, causing families to move to more affordable areas. “The issue is not just a ‘lack of signups’ for World Languages — we see growth in requests for Japanese next year, and our other languages do a fantastic job with student retention,” French teacher Elizabeth Louie said. “Overall declining enrollment means that all departments are going to see fewer students, but because World Languages is smaller, these declines had bigger impact on us.”
story continues on pg. 4 || news
istrict leaders failed to include teachers and students in the decision making process regarding their preliminary plans to remove all level four World Language classes and the smallest language program at each school over the course of the five years. Though this decision is not yet finalized and will not affect any students graduating prior to 2027, it has upset World Language teachers and students as FUHSD made this decision behind closed doors, with little to no input from teachers, students or parents. Accounting for the widespread impacts of the policy on those who have been excluded from the decision making process, FUHSD should consistently incorporate more community involvement when finalizing future decisions and reevaluate this controversial and harmful action plan. The removal of classes will eventually lead to fewer choices for students to fulfill their language requirements for graduation and college. As language classes currently have one of the highest ratios of students per class, the removal of all honors classes is likely to increase the number of students in remaining classes, adding pressure on teachers to accommodate the needs of all their students.
story continues on pg. 5 || opinion