Live Oak to offer Punjabi

Punjabi community members knocked on doors and made announcements in temples to get teenagers to sign a petition expressing interest in a Punjabi language class at Live Oak High School.

About 25 students signed-up.

"The language is the only reason we have a link to our ancestors," said Mohinder Singh Ghag, director of Live Oak Schools Foundation.

This is the first time Punjabi has been offered at Live Oak High School in about five years. The class will count toward the two-year foreign language requirement for University of California and California State University admissions. Manjit Jhutti will teach the class during "zero" period - about an hour before regular classes start - at Live Oak Middle School, said Steve Hogan, counselor at Live Oak High School.

Punjabi hasn't been popular enough in the past to get the 15 students needed to offer the class, Hogan said. Ninth to 12th-graders can still sign up for the class in the counseling office.

"If we get a response and have an interest, we'll offer a Punjabi II class," Hogan said.

Ghag's support and student interest in the class came when the Live Oak Unified School District's focus is language development, said Tom Pritchard, superintendent of school district. He presented the plan to offer the class to the district's Board of Trustees in July.

"The class is something that meets the needs of our students and the board was very supportive," Pritchard said.