MHS to phase out Latin classes

ST. MARYS - Memorial High School plans to gradually phase out Latin courses due to the difficulty in finding certified instructors and the fact that colleges are reportedly relaxing foreign language requirements.

Superintendent Bill Ruane made the announcement at last week's school board meeting, while touching on a number of open positions at St. Marys City Schools, including a high school ELA/ career exploration teaching opening.

"That's replacing (what) we talked about a while ago … with Linda Schloemer, our current Latin and English teacher," Ruane said. "She is going to go part-time in Latin, and we'll eventually start phasing that out over the years so every kid can finish out their Latin. But she'll go part-time just for a few years to finish that out."

Part of the problem, Ruane noted, is finding someone who is certified to teach Latin.

"It's really hard to find certification in any of the foreign languages right now, but especially Latin," he said. "Not necessarily any discredit to Latin or any of the foreign languages, but the colleges aren't requiring as much foreign language as they used to. So they're not really putting a huge preference on high schools getting kids the foreign language."

St. Marys' foreign language numbers are "decreasing a little bit" across the board, Ruane asserted.

"Now Latin has stayed pretty strong with our numbers, but if we phase out Latin in the next several years, we'll be able to still get our kids the foreign language services with our two Spanish teachers," Ruane continued. "It's one of those things where if you look at the cost and everything, as well as trying to find somebody certified in half Latin and half English, (it) is pretty difficult, but then (also) looking at the enrollment and the future trends."

According to statistics provided by high school principal Jason Johnson, there are currently 80 students enrolled in Spanish 1, 89 in Spanish II, 22 in Spanish III and 0 in Spanish IV. Last school year, there were 100 students in Spanish I, 73 in Spanish II, 30 in Spanish III and eight in Spanish IV.

This school year, 14 students are enrolled in Latin I, 23 in Latin II and 19 in Latin III/IV, which are offered in one section during the day, Johnson told The Daily Standard. Last school year, there were 24 students in Latin I, 21 students in Latin II and 13 students in Latin III/IV.

Johnson was uncertain when Latin was introduced as a course of study at the high school but noted all four levels of Lain are considered honors courses.

"A lot of universities are not requiring a foreign language anymore," Johnson told board members. "A number of universities have abolished their foreign language departments as well. So they're not offering foreign language, and they're not offering the program to certify teachers to become foreign language teachers."

Johnson pointed to Bowling Green State University as having once been a big producer of foreign language teachers.

According to an Aug. 15 article published by WTVG, BGSU is no longer offering the World Language Education major to new students, due to low enrollment. WTVG said the program is for students who are looking to teach a foreign language in K-12 schools.

The article also quoted a university spokesperson as saying BGSU "averaged fewer than four students graduating from the program in each of the last 10 years."

"Looking longevity-wise, it's going to be tough to fill any foreign language position," Johnson said.

Ruane found Johnson's statement to be "kind of surprising."

"Especially with the Spanish and the prevalence of the Spanish-speaking language around, even in this area," Ruane said.

Several positions for the 2026-27 school year have been posted by the school district - girls soccer head coach, boys soccer head coach, elementary principal, school psychologist, full-time speech language pathologist, part-time language pathologist, elementary music teacher, part-time intervention specialist, and high school ELA/ career exploration teacher.

"Most of this is not new positions or creating positions. We're actually absorbing about a full-time position out of this whole thing, but just kind of shifting around some of the other things, and then most of them are with retirements," Ruane said. "We're just trying to get ahead of the game. So none of them are really that new."

However, the "career exploration" component of the high school ELA position is new, Ruane noted.

"Eventually we'll come to the board with graduation requirements and maybe make that part of a required course, a semester course, half-credit that kids have to get to graduate, hopefully their freshman or sophomore year, kind of direct them where they're going to go, what careers they're going to go into, what coursework," he said. "A lot of the area schools have something like that in place."