The Orland High School District 230 board spent more than an hour Thursday discussing a proposal to add Arabic as a world language in district classrooms, but took no action for a second month.
Several board members maintained their position that several barriers remain to installing the curriculum and said it is the board’s job to approve, not propose, curriculum.
The board discussed possible steps with Anita Huffman, assistant superintendent for instruction. Board President Lynn Zeder emphasized the board and administrative staff have made progress toward finding a way to add the language to its curriculum.
But Mohammed Jaber, along with several audience members, expressed frustration progress hasn’t been made since adding the language was first proposed in 2023.
“I don’t know what progress has been made,” Jaber said. “It’s not like this is something that just came out of December or came out of last minute.”
Jaber said the idea was brought to the board in 2023 and to the public in 2024. He said in August that, as the first District 230 board member of Arab background, the curriculum is personal to him. He said the district’s Arab population is growing, at about 30%, according to his analysis of graduation data.
Eight people, including District 230 alumni, parents and educators, spoke in support of the curriculum.
Supporters have said several students are interested in taking the language. Several parents have said Arabic language lessons are expensive and hard to coordinate with teachers halfway across the world and that students struggle to learn the language on top of school work and extracurriculars.
Several speakers said learning the language can lead to college credit and jobs. Others emphasized the language helps students of different cultural backgrounds better appreciate and understand each other.
Assma Daifallah and Waleed Atawneh both said Arabic is designated as a critical need language by the U.S. State Department and that it plays a vital role in diplomacy, global commerce, cybersecurity, health care and national security.
“What’s required now is, from our board, to empower the teachers, empower the administrators to update the curriculum which allows our District 230 graduates to compete in an emerging job market in the present time and also the projected future,” Atawneh said.
Huffman gave a presentation demonstrating the long process needed to start the curriculum.
She said the district must look at post-secondary implications, staffing courses and sustainability, affect on existing languages offered and financial considerations.
Huffman said the district needs to make a decision whether to offer Arabic as a one- or two-year program versus a four-year program.
Huffman also said the district must decide whether to approve it as a heritage language curriculum, which she said would be for students who already have a background with the language, or as a secondary language curriculum, for students who have no prior knowledge of Arabic.
Huffman said adding a new language might draw students away from classes such as Spanish, German and French, decreasing enrollment numbers needed to sustain full-time teachers in those areas.
She said the district already reviewed the licensure requirements and Illinois State Board of Education approved programs, examined university and community partnerships, looked at job postings and conducted curricular work in world language and social studies programs.
Huffman said it is in the administrative review stage, which is step three of 12. Through this review, she said the district found 50 educators statewide hold a world language Arabic endorsement certification but only seven of those certificate holders actually teach the language.
“The limited number of available positions remains an important factor for the success and sustainability of the program,” Huffman said.
In order to teach the course, educators must have the endorsement and pass the world language Arabic test, she said.
Board member Tony Serratore said Huffman’s presentation demonstrated why the vote died last month. He said if the board approved the curriculum, it would have “forced the district to do something that they’re not ready for.”
“The administration is supposed to do this type of work,” Serratore said. “Our job is not to do the day-to-day operations of this district. Our job is to give that work to the people who know best.”
He said the board will act once the administration gets to a point where it is ready to make a recommendation.
One audience member shouted out, calling Serratore’s comments “rude and condescending” and asked Serratore to not make the assumption the audience does not understand the curriculum process.
Board member Mark Kelly suggested the district post a job opening soon so potential teachers could find the position and prepare to be certified and move to the area in time for the start date. He also suggested hiring a permanent substitute teacher for the curriculum.
His comments received several shouts of “yes” from the audience.
“Frankly, District 230 is a good district, and we do want to poach people, talented people from other districts,” he said.
Superintendent Robert Nolting and Zeder both expressed concerns about being financially responsible. Nolting said the district posts positions based on student enrollment and said posting the position without student registrations could lead to hiring a teacher for a position that may not exist.
“That is breaking everything we’ve done, and I’m not paying someone that much money for a permanent sub,” Zeder said.
Zeder said she would be more comfortable if the Arabic language teacher also had endorsements to teach other classes and was filling other needs.
Kelly asked for the board to receive an update in April, then every two months. Nolting said the education committee can provide an update as often as he would like.
awright@chicagotribune.com
