With no French teacher to teach students, French 1 through 4 classes have moved to Edmentum for learning. In August, French teacher Debra Richardson unexpectedly passed away. This left Bellevue West with no French teachers and a large shift for students in French classes.

Administrators looked for the alternative of online courses until they could find a teacher. After reviewing many different programs they decided on Edmentum. They signed a contract with Edmentum for all four levels of French for the first semester and according to Rohlfs they are likely to continue it in the second semester.

According to principal Kevin Rolhfs, Latin teacher Leslie Hooper and Bellevue East French teacher Nora Boyd put together a few weeks of lessons so that French students could continue to work on skills while they looked for a teacher.

“Mrs. Hooper took it upon herself in the building work with Ms. Boyd to just create lessons,” Rolhfs said. “Just try and keep students active and give them a little bit of normalcy back in those French classes.” 

For the following weeks when administration was searching for a learning alternative, French 4 seniors Paige Reisz, Andrew Hedin, and Gracie Babcock taught many of the lower-level French students. According to Reisz, this worked well and students were learning together.

“I do appreciate those three stepping up and working in that, that is a great teaching tool,”  Rohlfs said. “But in order for us to give credit, we have to have some kind of accredited program. So you know, in reality, can we just let them continue to go and they’ve probably been fine. But we wouldn’t have been able to offer anybody a credit for that.”

According to Reisz, Edmentum is working fairly well for French 1 and French 2 students, but French 3 and French 4 students are struggling. Reisz said that the courses’ organization is hard to follow.

“It goes between acting like we know nothing to perfectly fluent know everything,” Reisz said. “And it started, like, the course, as if we’ve started this at the beginning of the year. So we are over 30 assignments behind and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

The office and counselors are leaving options open for those students who do not like Edmentum. Students are able to take in-person metro classes in the winter, or sign up for online French courses through Edmentum, both of which are covered by the school. They also extended the time allowed to drop the course. Normally students cannot drop a class after the first quarter but for this year students can drop any French class up until the last 10 days of the semester.