This article is part of a series on proposed budget cuts.

The Romans ruled a powerful empire, but it eventually fell to the Gauls (the modern-day French) and other civilizations. Latin has been in the Wayland Middle School’s curriculum since the 1970’s, and it was once a popular language to take. The students taking Spanish and French were minorities compared to those learning the language of the Romans.

However, history always repeats itself. Due to the declining enrollment in Latin at the middle school,  as well as a district-wide need to reduce the education budget, Principal John Kaveleski recommended taking Latin out of the middle school  when proposed budget cuts were being drawn up earlier this year. Administrators are planning to eliminate Latin from the middle school curriculum after the current 7^th graders move on to 9th grade.

Forty years, ago, Latin was the dominant language studied in Wayland, and it was Spanish that was in danger of elimination. But now, those positions have reversed. According to Kaveleski, Latin enrollment started its decline in popularity ten years ago. Currently, out of the 400-425 students in 7^th and 8^th grade who are eligible to learn Latin, only 40-45 chose to take the course.

Because of the low number of Latin students, cutting Latin from the curriculum will impact the smallest possible number of parents and students. Kaveleski remarked that he would have no problem with having ten Latin classes if Wayland could afford to do so, but the economic climate does not allow it.

Though the middle school will no longer offer Latin, the high school will continue to offer Latin as long as there is demand for it. However, it seems that the high school program will be greatly affected by the change at the lower levels.

Without the middle school program, if a student decides to take Latin all 4 years of high school, they would begin with Latin 1 in freshman year, and finish with Latin 4 in senior year. Since students will not have the opportunity to begin in middle school, it is possible that Latin 5 will be eliminated and Latin 4 will become the highest-level course the high school offers.

Ed DeHoratius has taught Latin at the high school for eleven years, and he says he has noticed the number of Latin students decreasing. This year, the honors and college level Latin 3 classes were combined into one class due to the low enrollment.

In most cases,  students pick one language to take in the 7th grade and stick with it until they graduate from the Wayland school system. But if the middle school program is eliminated, high school Latin’s enrollment will rely mainly on students switching languages or adding a second language class.

“[I am] sorry to see the curriculum in the middle school go,” said DeHoratius. “I still trust the people who make the decisions,” he continued, though he doesn’t necessarily agree with those decisions.

Many students also share this opinion. Eric Alpert, a sophomore, opposed to the removal of Latin the middle school, said, “I don’t think it should be cut because it is a good class and people who take Latin have better SAT scores.”

This is confirmed by reports conducted by CollegeBoard, the company that creates and runs the SAT reasoning test. Latin students scored relatively high compared to people taking other foreign languages.

This is also true for the academic scholars of Wayland. A list of valedictorians and salutatorians of the past couple years shows that the majority took Latin at one point in their academic careers.

Mr. Kaveleski believes that Latin may or may not be reintroduced into the middle school curriculum and may be replaced by another language, such as Mandarin Chinese.

This article is part of a series on proposed budget cuts:

• Budget cuts: the Latin program
• Budget cuts: the Athletics program
• Budget cuts: the Guidance department
• Budget cuts: the Science department
• Budget cuts: the English department