One thing that had always set Hagerty apart from other schools was its inclusion of a Chinese program. While a majority of schools only allow students to take the usual languages, Spanish, French and American Sign Language, Hagerty always had something extra to offer—that is, until last year, when they announced that a change was coming to the world languages department.

The school made the decision to no longer offer Chinese classes starting in the 2026-2027 school year due to the district’s budget cuts.

Since 2018, Zhenzhen Zhang has taught every Mandarin course at Hagerty, from Chinese 1 to AP Chinese, allowing students to familiarize themselves with the language and culture, and even earn the gold biliteracy seal for taking the course all four years. 

Because of this addition to their curriculum, Hagerty assumed a unique position as the only school in Seminole County to offer the course.

“I know a lot of students come over to Hagerty specifically for this class, and because we were the only high school that had it, students can’t go to another school to take this class now,” senior Helen Pan said.

Pan began the program as a freshman and currently takes AP Chinese, earning the gold seal of biliteracy.

While the program steadily grew from both inside student interest and the aforementioned transfer students, many felt the classes never got the backing they deserved.

“The program kept on growing over the years, but the funding and support they got from the school did not change at all.” senior Jerry Liu said. “Mrs. Zhang was the only teacher, but she also has to teach geometry, while having to teach Chinese in the same exact classroom.” 

A community was growing, as both the class and its adjacent clubs had given students opportunities that were not possible otherwise. As an example, Liu and Pan had leadership roles in National Chinese Honors Society this year. However, it just was not enough.

“National Chinese Honor Society shutting down is definitely limiting spaces where people like me can find other people to sort of communicate and feel like there’s a place to belong,” Pan said.

The Asian Culture Club will still be in session next year however, preserving spaces for students to connect with ideas, experiences and, of course, food.

No matter what the students thought, it inevitably came down to what the people in charge had to say, as in the past couple of years, the district has forced many schools to let go of many beloved programs and staff due to budget cuts.

“Basically, the districts say how many allocations we get per school, and then we determine what we do with our allocations,” Assistant principal Colleen Windt said. 

In short, the school had been forced to make some cuts in the math department, and found themselves short a couple teachers.

“Since Mrs. Zhang taught both math and Chinese, we needed her to fill that position, and take on more geometry classes,” Windt said.

This past year, Zhang had 81 geometry students, in comparison to her 32 Mandarin students across two periods. Meanwhile, Pamela Lynch, the French teacher, had 116 students to fill out a full six classes.

Hagerty is not the only school having to make difficult choices, as many other schools and districts are facing the same budget crisis, and have been forced to let go of programs of their own.

“I hoped us being the only school in Seminole County to offer it would affect their decision,” Liu said.

Nevertheless, the school has reached its conclusion on the matter, and it is up to those involved to decide where to go next. Students in the lower classes, such as Chinese 1, can still continue learning Mandarin online though Florida Virtual School.

“Even online, they don’t offer AP Chinese.”  Pan said. “So even if they wanted to take that class, that it’s just not a possibility anymore,”

With options running thin, students and teachers are doing their best to help in whichever ways they can, and remain optimistic for the future.

“My students are really sad, because they don’t have an opportunity to continue learning Chinese. But there is always a possibility the program could return in the future,” Zhang said. “In the meantime, if any of my students want help learning Chinese, I can always provide them resources and materials.”

The students, recognizing everything Zhang has done for them since becoming the Chinese teacher at Hagerty, began to plan one last show of appreciation as the program came to a close.

Silently, those in Zhang’s Chinese classes worked together to create a ginormous gift basket full of many foods and drinks, along with a card filled with many thanks from all the students. On May 1, the students presented the basket to her as a surprise during break.

“Throughout it all, I believe I still have the best students in the world,” Zhang said.