Before this year, the Language Academy operated at a rather discreet level, in the back of the C200’s hall near Dr. Combs’ classroom. Due to the rising numbers of the department’s students, some changes have been made that have drawn the Academy into the spotlight.
There are roughly 80 students in the academy right now, which is the most they have ever had at the start of a school year, and these numbers are growing. Out of these 80 students, there are about 10 Marshallese and the rest are Hispanic.
“We are typically enrolling two or three a week,” said Language Academy English teacher Mrs. Nance.” “We don’t know what’s going to happen if they keep coming, because by law, we are limited to only 15 students in a class.”
The majority of these new students started enrolling at the end of last year and have continued to arrive throughout summer.
“The language academy, I anticipate, is going to continue to grow,” said Assistant Principal Dr. Oesterle.
Due to the increasing numbers, a new Physical Science teacher has been hired, Mrs. Jennifer Stephens. An additional teacher will be hired to teach a Math lab.
“We are six students away from having to hire a seventh teacher,” said Dr. Oesterle.
This exponential growth is due to Springdale being the sixth fastest growing city in the nation, which will cause the population at school to increase as well. With the greater number of students, the academy had to exchange their former schedule for the one used by the rest of the school.
“We had our own special block schedule, where we were teaching 85 minutes. Now we’re going to be on a regular school schedule,” said Nance.
Despite losing their block schedule, Language Academy students will experience a beneficial extended time for English and Math.
“The kids will have two English and Math classes a day, so that means that they have 100 minutes of each every day,” said Nance.
The second English teacher that was hired was Mr. Spencer, who replaced a former Reading class. This new English class is an ESL class, which focuses more on the mechanical and conversational aspects of the English language.
“Most of the students are learning English for the first time,” said Oesterle. The ESL class will be more beneficial for these students because they will be learning how to incorporate English into their everyday lives.
Due to the growing numbers, the Academy’s place in the C200’s hall may have grown too small, and they might have to be moved to a location outside of the school.
“We really hope that that won’t happen, we really want to stay here,” said Nance.        “We don’t want to move, we’re so happy here at Har-Ber High School.”
Just because this year has seen a significant growth in the Language Academy population, they usually max out at around 60, doesn’t mean that this will always be the case.
“The 80 students this year will be out in the student population next year,” said Mrs. McKeever, the Government and Economics teacher. This will open up more room for students and possibly prevent the Academy from having to relocate.