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Community urges board to preserve in-person Latin instruction after scheduling changes
Summary
Multiple parents, alumni and Latin teachers told the Fayetteville-Manlius board that a recent plan to reduce in-person Latin sections and move a seventh-grade class to remote instruction threatened enrollment and the program pipeline; teachers said a later reversal left uncertainty and prompted some families to withdraw.
Several parents, alumni and Latin teachers addressed the Fayetteville-Manlius Board of Education during public comment to urge keeping in-person Latin instruction at both middle schools and to oppose remote delivery for seventh‑grade Latin.
Carrie Tyler, a Latin teacher in the district since 2008, said she had been told the program would shrink from 10 sections to seven and that a seventh-grade class at Wellwood had been slated to be taught remotely from another building. Tyler said she offered to teach an additional sixth class without extra pay to keep the program in-person but was at first denied that option; she told the board the district later reversed course and agreed to schedule the seventh-grade section in person with her teaching it as a sixth class, but with an admonition that both seventh-grade classes would have to be scheduled simultaneously and that administrators should "prepare for the possibility of reverting to distance learning." Tyler said some families had already withdrawn their children because of the uncertainty.
Several other district teachers, alumni and parents spoke in support of Latin. James Hunt, a Latin teacher since 2007, and Anne Stock, an FM alumna and parent, described Latin as a cross-disciplinary program that builds language, logic and cultural knowledge and said maintaining in-person sections sustains the program pipeline. Kate Stewart, who described herself as a district German teacher who previously helped run remote language instruction in earlier years, cautioned that previous remote arrangements reduced instructional quality. Denise Mons, identified as the 2024 New York State World Language Teacher of the Year and president of a regional language educators group, urged preserving language diversity and warned that applying the same class-size minimums across middle and high school levels can unintentionally shrink programs.
Superintendent Dr. Tice told the board he had asked building principals to reach out to families who expressed concerns. Speakers urged the board and administration to make a definitive scheduling decision so families can plan; several specifically asked that in-person instruction continue at both middle schools to preserve future enrollment in the high-school program.
No formal board action on Latin scheduling was recorded at the meeting; several speakers said the district had made or reversed scheduling decisions in the days before the meeting and asked for a final, public resolution.
