Due to struggles maintaining a teacher, the Hospitality program will be removed for the upcoming 2025 school year, and the course catalog rebranding Culinary & Hospitality to only include Culinary.

Over the course of the past year, Hospitality students have received instruction from three separate substitutes. The current substitute is Collin Dodos. The usage of substitutes to instruct the class was prompted by the lack of interest for the position of a Hospitality teacher.

“The job is still open for hiring, it’s still floating around. If we’re able to find a teacher for the class over the transfer season, we could conceivably bring back Hospitality, but it’s already hard enough to find teachers,” Principal Donna Levy said. “We build our course catalog based on what we absolutely know that we can offer. Hospitality isn’t there because I’d hate to offer students a class when it’s still unsure whether or not the class will still exist by next school year.”

Students are still able to supplement their learning by taking program-focused electives and supplementary programs. 

“Classes like Baking & Pastry and the new Culinary II lab for the [Class of 2027] are there for students to become more invested in their program,” Assistant Principal Donna Besser said. “We like it when students utilize their electives to further their learning in their program. That’s what they came for after all, so it’s good when students choose to take more classes related to it.”

The removal of the Hospitality courses is the most prominent change in the school’s CTE curriculum, opening students’ schedules up and enabling them to enroll in other courses they may want to take.

“I’m a bit bummed about the whole thing since I really wanted to take Hospitality,” Culinary student freshman Carter Sims said. “Even without the class, though, I’ll be able to do stuff like Hospitality competitions at FBLA and jobs outside of school, so it’s not something that bothers me too much. I’m actually excited now that I have an extra elective period.”

The Class of 2026 is the last cohort to start the Hospitality pathway, with students in that year being required to take Hospitality I during the current school year. Afterwards, it will not be required for them to complete Hospitality II or III. The Class of 2027 and beyond will not have the opportunity to take Hospitality.

“I think it’s unfortunate because the class can be very beneficial if the right teacher [is] found and the right curriculum was formed,” Culinary & Hospitality student sophomore Addison Marsh said. “I feel like I have not been gaining as much from Hospitality as I should be. It’s just the circumstances that the class is under right now. It’s definitely not the best.”

After magnet students finish a course sequence in their program, they are obligated to take an End-of-Program Technical Assessment to measure the skills they learned in the program. There are two separate End-of-Program examinations, one for Culinary and the other for Hospitality. The removal of Hospitality means that any student other than current juniors and seniors will be unable to take the assessment and earn CTE credit for that course.

“I’m just a substitute, but I still hope that I was able to teach the kids enough from the [hospitality] curriculum to make sure they pass their exam,” Dodos said. “I’ve mostly enjoyed my time at the school, and even though hospitality isn’t exactly my passion, I think that what you learn in the class is important.” 

Although students are unable to earn credit for Hospitality, a select portion of the Hospitality curriculum will be implemented into the new two-year Culinary program. Topics such as creating tablescapes, restaurant operations, and customer service will still be covered.

“There was plenty of crossover in the curriculums already, but I usually don’t teach some things because they were being taught in Hospitality,” culinary teacher Michael Hadobas said. “Culinary II is gonna have an extra lab next year, so we’re going to use that time to fit those lessons in there. The focus on hotel management will go away a little bit and the focus on front of the house dining operations will increase, since we’re now going to be honing in on the culinary aspect of hospitality.”