PUEBLO, Colo. — The Pueblo District 60 School Board meeting will host a public presentation on the elimination of the Spanish Foreign Language program at Central High School on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 5:30 p.m.

Those who would like to attend may meet in-person at the meeting or over Zoom. The group called “Save the Spanish at Central High School” will be outlining inequities at the school. According to those students registered for the fall semester of 2020, they believed that Spanish with a live teacher would be offered.

However, at the beginning of the semester, approximately 131 students were told they had been enrolled in an Italian or French class, against their wishes. Those who continued to contest the lack of a Spanish class were enrolled in the APEX on-line computer program.

Students in the Chicano Studies course, a class offered as a remedy for a dispute by the Office of Civil Rights in 1974, were told that the social studies course was limited to one section, and they had to choose other classes.

The members of the “Save the Spanish” group say that they believe the elimination of Spanish as a foreign language with a live teacher and limiting of access to Chicano Studies are racist acts against the students of Central High School.

During the public input portion of the regularly scheduled meeting, the group will present on what they believe to be the violations, the history of Spanish and Chicano Studies in the school and their concerns regarding their college admission requirements for a rigorous foreign language course.

The group has corresponded by email with the school board members, the superintendent and the Commissioner of the Colorado Department of Education.