Changes in the World Language Department

Dear Garfield Community,

Welcome back and I hope you had good summers. Garfield was trying to hire part-time French and part-time Japanese teacher; we worked with our HR department to find qualified candidates. Thus far we have not found a qualified candidate that we would feel confident to put in front of your sons/daughters. We will not be offering 1st year French or 1st year Japanese next year at Garfield because we were unable to fill the positions after extensive searches. We explored many options with sharing teachers, ESL candidates, and translators just to name a few.

In an attempt to find a qualified language teacher for a hard to fill part-time position, in August we began looking for a 0.8 Spanish teacher so that we could still provide students with a 1st year language class for the 2018-19 academic year. We will be interviewing for this Spanish teacher position this week, and will work with HR to get it filled as soon as possible. Although we realize that Spanish was not the first choice of students who signed up for 1st year Japanese and French, we wanted to offer these 1st year Spanish classes as a great alternative. Thus, the two sections of 1st year French and the two sections of 1st year Japanese have been made into 1st year Spanish classes. These 1st year Spanish classes will be offered periods 1-4 during the same times that 1st year Japanese and 1st year French were to be offered.

We realize that this situation is less than ideal for students excited to take 1st year French and 1st year Japanese. Please know that if you are willing to wait a year, 1st year French and 1st year Japanese will once again be offered in the 2019-20 school year. For students already enrolled in 2nd, 3rd, and AP Japanese and French, there will be no change to your schedule.

Have a good start of the school year!

GHS Administration and World Languages Department