The district plans to discontinue Latin instruction for sixth graders beginning next year.
Joseph Barresi, the only Latin teacher at the high school, said that the district intends to keep Latin at the high school, but phase it out of the middle school. “So next year, there will be no Latin in the sixth grade, and then the year after that, there will be no Latin in the seventh grade, and then the year after that, it will be completely phased out of the middle school,” he said.
Latin Club members created a change.org petition titled “Save the Shaker Latin Program” to protest the decision. The petition was shared on Shaker Latin’s Instagram page, and had 245 signatures at the time of publication.
Sophomore Dinesh Sarma, who wrote the petition, said that the Latin cut would ruin the chance for young students to take up a new language. “It’s inevitably going to lead to the end of the Latin program at the high school as we know it. I think it’s going to ruin the opportunity for future students to learn a new language,” Sarma said. “It’s just a terrible idea in general, and they’re not really taking student input, so it’s even worse.”
Latin, one of five languages offered at Shaker schools, is available for students in grades 6-12. This year, Shaker students in grades seven-12 took part in the National Latin Exam, and 40 Shaker students brought home awards.
Other schools in Cuyahoga County that offer Latin include Hathaway Brown School, Orange High School, Laurel School and University School.
Sophomore Adrian Rolf, who has taken Latin since sixth grade, said that Latin offers unique learning opportunities. “While Latin’s a dead language, it’s not useless. Latin can serve as a foundation for learning all the other romance languages, as well as English, because English has a lot of words that are derived from Latin through French,” Rolf said. Rolf also said that students learn about Ancient Roman history in Latin. “There is so much literature, so much culture, so much history, both good and bad, that if we ignore it, we are losing something.”
In March 2023, the district proposed discontinuing Latin instruction at Woodbury Elementary School and discontinuing Greek instruction at the high school. Latin students responded with a protest that drew 46 students to march around the administration building and to launch a petition that received 808 signatures. While Latin was not cut from Woodbury, but Greek was eliminated on all levels starting in the 2023-24 school year.
Barresi said that students have made significant achievements in the Latin program. “I really like Shaker. I’d love to stay here. Myself and the students have really worked hard to rebuild the program, and I feel we’re in a really good place and our students are really excited about taking Latin,” he said. “I think they’re in a position to do very well both in the International Baccalaureate program and in the Advanced Placement program.”
Barresi said that without the middle school offering Latin classes, it will be difficult to sustain the program. “Most students are just going to stay in German or Chinese or French or Spanish and won’t switch languages and won’t stop their language at the high school,” he said.
Sophomore Mckaylen Langan, who has taken Latin since sixth grade, said that the Latin program offers opportunities beyond the classroom. “There are conventions, there’s classical leagues — the Latin convention is actually an Ohio Junior Classical League, and that’s a whole other deal. There’s at least a dozen schools in Ohio that go to it, there’s competition. Latin’s not only a class; it’s a community that you join,” Langan said. Every year, Shaker Latin students attend the OJCL convention in Columbus, where they compete in academic and creative activities with other schools.
Langan said that after finding out about the cut yesterday, students have emailed the school board, Superintendent David Glasner and even a former Latin student who led the protest march two years ago.
In a March 19 email and video message to the community, Glasner stated that the district is currently experiencing deficit spending, which means that “our expenditures are outpacing our revenues,” and that the district has not placed a full operating levy on the ballot since 2014. Glasner wrote that the district was in the process of identifying opportunities for cost reductions. In March, three of the district’s five English Language Learner positions were cut for next school year.
Barresi said that the number of students enrolled in various language programs is imbalanced. “Let’s even the numbers out. Let’s get more students who struggle academically getting into Latin,” he said. “If we keep the program, we will get there — but we just need some patience, and laying off teachers and increasing class size is not going to make this school district better, and that’s the direction we’re going in.”
