The K-8 World Language Program in the Public Schools of Brookline supports the kind of cutting-edge learning that contributes to the excellent reputation of the town’s schools.
Lauded upon its arrival in 2008, K-8 World Language today is being seriously weakened unnecessarily due to systemic problems faced by too many of its teachers and students. There are too few World Language teachers in pockets of this comprehensive language program, and in some schools World Language is treated as an afterthought, creating inequities that are a disservice to both students and educators.
As a member of the Brookline Educators Union, I call on the School Committee or its designee to immediately return to the bargaining it began over an agreement to ensure the continued success of K8 World Language.
Such an agreement must involve issues of scheduling and staffing. A contractual agreement is the only way to guarantee that the educators responsible for the success of the K8 World Language Program are treated fairly, equitably, and with respect. BEU members stand together knowing that the schedules of our K8 colleagues are intertwined with ours, and that teaching is a joint, whole community endeavor. We reject any district strategy that undermines one subject area or educational service — and thus the educators responsible for it — in an effort to meet the needs of another. We know that schools are communities in which students and adults only flourish when everyone does.
Currently, too many K8 World Language Program educators are given excessively high student loads and untenable scheduling involving erratic teaching locations, no limit to the number of grade levels taught, and no limit to the number of sections. Furthermore, they are typically excluded from staff meetings due to scheduling. These conditions are untenable In a program that meets rigorous state standards using a target language exclusively in classes of students with highly varied degrees of language proficiency. In 2015, Brookline voters approved a tax hike to specifically support the K8 World Language program, whereas today these dedicated educators face precarious employment and are frequently threatened with layoffs.
Over the past five years, more than a dozen K8 World Language educators — over half in the program — have left the Brookline school district.
The BEU sees this as a failure on the part of the district to support an important program with a racially and ethnically diverse staff that promotes respect for diverse cultures and knowledge about the world beyond the town borders. Allowing further weakening of the K8 World Language program would be a devastating blow to the Public Schools of Brookline’s attempts to be a more culturally responsive school district for students and staff alike.
For these reasons, the BEU is demanding immediate action on the part of the School Committee to reach an agreement that protects the K8 World Language Program.