In February, when the budget for the 2026-27 school year was published, it involved cutting to 5.4 full time teaching positions, including Spanish teacher Cecilia Hansen. Since then, Garfield students and staff have been fighting to keep Hansen at Garfield.
Budget cuts have hit the Garfield Language Department especially hard in the last decade. Years ago, Garfield used to offer a multitude of languages, with much more diversity than what is provided now. However, financial shortfalls have chipped away at the language programs. Since 2019, both Latin and Japanese are no longer offered at Garfield.
In addition to Latin and Japanese being fully cut, Garfield’s Spanish department has faced cuts in all of the past seven years, and has shrunk from ten full time teachers to only four full time teachers and one part time.
The Instructional Council (IC), made up of Garfield Department Heads, was in charge of creating four budget proposals for the 2026-27 school year while Dr. Hart was away on medical leave. Out of these four proposals, three of them affected Garfield’s language department. “The thing that’s most troubling about this decision this year is that it was put into the hands of a bunch of Department Heads and that should not have happened,” Hansen said. During that meeting, Hansen advocated for keeping the Spanish department intact by using data showing student interest in Spanish classes, showing that 600 students are signed up for Spanish and over 100 students are signed up for French next year. To Hansen, cutting the Spanish department’s budget every year doesn’t make sense. “The question I’ve always asked is: why is world language constantly the first one to go? Why isn’t it more valued, why are these decisions being made by IC and admin discretion instead of being based on student interest?”
The main argument for cutting a Spanish position is the idea of prioritizing “college readiness” and getting students the credits they need to graduate. Hansen explained that she finds the pattern of cutting funding for world languages concerning “There were specific teachers in that IC meeting that explicitly said ‘Cut world language because we don’t need Spanish 3, Spanish 4, or AP Spanish.’” While upper-level Spanish courses are not required graduation credits, Hansen argued that student interest for an education in world languages is there, and student academic interests should be considered.
After advocacy from students and staff, and grant seeking from the Garfield PTSA, Hansen’s position was restored. “Restoring the Spanish position was important because students continue to request these courses in strong numbers, and world language classes support graduation requirements and college admissions,” Principal Dr. Hart wrote in the Garfield Newsletter.Hansen emphasized how crucial it is to highlight the importance of the Spanish Department so that this doesn’t happen again, stating, “what we really need to be doing as a school is enlightening the rest of the school about how valuable our classes are.”
