In the coming school year, students will be starting new math classes. Students who have passed their finals in Algebra will be moving on to Geometry, students who passed Geometry will move on to Algebra II and so on. However, approximately 25 Wenatchee High School students who would otherwise be eligible for Calculus will be left out if things stand as they are now.

To accommodate the influx of students entering WHS in the abnormally large freshman class, an additional teacher was requested by WHS Assistant Principal Ricardo Iniguez. The request was declined.

“We went to the district cabinet and showed them why we needed an additional full-time math teacher for the upcoming year based upon the increase of student enrollment, an additional 180 students versus the current number we have now, with a very small outgoing senior class and a very large incoming class of freshman,” Principal Bob Celebrezze said.

Without the proper amount of staff to manage the number of students, decisions were made regarding the structure of the math department.

“We had to staff as many classes as we could with the teachers that we have, and unfortunately that meant not offering as many Calculus classes as we did this year, despite having quite a few students signed up for it,” math department head Bob Swardz said. “They can do Directed Study, they can take different levels of Calculus at the college, but they won’t have any options for Calculus at WHS if they don’t get into those two sections.”

The math department isn’t the only department that will be affected. The hiring of an additional science teacher has been approved by the district. An additional portable will be constructed to accommodate the high number of students flooding into the school. This will be the fourth portable constructed at WHS.

“We requested three additional teachers, one in science, one in math, and one in language arts and one was admitted… We showed them a strong need for additional teachers, and based on the budget, it was declined… Since then it has become very evident very quickly that we’re going to be short,” Celebrezze said.

A major consequence of being short on staff has been an increase in class sizes. Classes that have traditionally held 25 students now 30 students, placing a workload equivalent to teaching another class on teachers.

“What we’re starting to see is that our core classes, the classes who get texted the most, have become quite large.” Chris Cloke, an English teacher at WHS, said. “If you hire additional teachers, the workloads in that department will go down across the board. There is a massive difference in the time commitment and the effort required to do their job when you compare a teacher with 125 students to a teacher with 150 students. It’s essentially teaching another class.”

A meeting will be held on Monday, May 11, between Iniguez and Brian Flones, the superintendent of Wenatchee School District, to revisit the issue of hiring additional teachers.

“I am quite sure a resolution to [the lack of math teachers] will be made,” Celebrezze said. “When the issue came to the attention of Mr. Flones, he immediately acted upon it by calling a meeting. I’m very optimistic that it will be taken care of. Mr. Flones is very supportive on Advance Placement courses.”