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Students and English chair urge Piedmont board to reinstate creative-writing, Film-as-Lit electives
Summary
Piedmont High students and English department chair Mercedes Foster urged the board to reinstate two cut ELA electives — creative writing and Film as Literature — citing student demand, enrollment signups and impacts on humanities opportunities.
Students, parents and the English department told the Piedmont Board of Education that cutting two English electives from next year’s master schedule would reduce humanities opportunities for high-schoolers.
Piedmont High senior Ella Hughes said the proposed cuts would “materially impact potential career paths and interests for dozens of students,” and cited the loss of creative-writing and film classes that have supported student publication and development. Mercedes Foster, the English department chair, told the board the two semester electives represent “fully 0.5 of the language arts electives available to our roughly 800 high school students” and said the department had 29 students signed up to take Film as Literature next year despite administration feedback that the class previously did not run due to low signups.
Foster requested board support to reinstate both electives and described the master-schedule constraints that led to adjustments in FTE. Superintendent Hahn and other board members acknowledged scheduling and FTE limits and said they would explore whether modest additional FTE or scheduling adjustments could allow the classes to run in the coming year. No formal motion was taken on the schedule during this meeting; the board heard public comment and department input and directed staff to pursue implementation options.
