The Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District will abbreviate its ethnic studies requirement from a yearlong course to a single semester in the 2026-2027 school year.
The board of trustees voted 3-2 at a meeting on Oct. 27 to cut the required social studies course, despite a torrent of support of its continued form from students, parents, staff and alumni. Support for shortening the requirement came from trustees Vadim Katz, Catherine Vonnegeut and Alex Levich. Trustees Esmerelda Oritz and Thida Cornes cast the dissenting votes.
“Looking across California, many high performing districts are successfully offering ethnic studies as a one-semester course, exactly as the state defined it,” Levich said.
Ethnic studies is currently a yearlong course at the district that teaches students about the study of race, contributions of people of color in the United States and contemporary social movements.
MVLA instituted ethnic studies as a yearlong required course for freshmen in 2023 in anticipation of AB 101, a state bill that would require the course for graduation. The legislature did not fund the ethnic studies mandate, and the district sought to evaluate how the course could be continued as a local mandate.
Superintendent Eric Volta said the new course would still be a requirement for incoming freshman students, who would also have to enroll in another single-semester course, such as health. Course registrations in the coming year would likely modify staffing needs, he added.
“If more students take health, we will have to hire more health teachers,” Volta said.
The board had held various study sessions and called on the community to provide guidance on how the class could continue to fit the district’s mandated curriculum. The vote comes as the issue was taken up at a Sept. 29 board meeting and refined during an Oct. 13 study session. Dozens of community members came out in support of maintaining the program in its yearlong form.
“Attending a high-resources district like MVLA is such a privilege for any student, and it’s also a hard place to navigate as a student of color,” said Trustee Esmerelda Ortiz. “I can’t belittle that benefit that a yearlong course provides.”
With nearly two hours of public comment, opinions were mixed.
Kiyoshi Taylor, a graduate of Los Altos High School, urged the district to maintain the course to educate students on the Black and Brown experience.
“I would have done anything to have taken a course like ethnic studies, and that’s the reason why so many kids wanted it, because they didn’t feel seen, they didn’t feel represented in their own communities,” he said.
Ilan Frank, a parent of a Los Altos High School student, said the focus of the class should be incorporated into the entire student experience.
“Let’s get real academic curriculum. Let’s teach antiracism, but let’s do it across the entire curriculum, not in one semester or two semesters,” he said.
Trustee Catherine Vonnegut ultimately broke the deadlock, indicating the significance of the requirement to continue, but saying it could be balanced with other requirements during a student’s high school tenure.
“I can see both sides really easily,” said Vonnegut. “I really could almost flip a coin.”
