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, after stalling its vote on the curriculum in January. Several board members maintained their position there are several barriers to installing th e curriculum and said it is the board’s job to approve, not propose, curriculum. The board did not take any action Thursday, instead discussing 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 vocal audience members, expressed frustration progress hasn’t been made to add the language since it was 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 Thursday. 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. District 230 board member Tony Serratore disagrees with a proposal to add Arabic language to the curriclum during a board meeting Thursday. He said it is not the board's job to "force the district to do something they're not ready for." (Addison Wright/Daily Southtown) Several speakers Thursday 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 complete in an emerging job market in the present time and also the projected future,” Atawneh said. Huffman gave a presentation that demonstrated 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. Anita Huffman, District 230 assistant superintendent for instructional services, gives a presentation on the process for adding Arabic classes in schools at Thursday's school board meeting. (Addison Wright/Daily Southtown) 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 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. [email protected] ...read more read less