The OP said that the regular pace Spanish 1 was discontinued, leaving only the middle school slow pace Spanish 1a and 1b. Could be that there were too few students starting Spanish in 9th grade (as opposed to 7th grade), so they dropped regular pace Spanish 1 to free a teacher for some other in-demand Spanish course.
It is not clear whether there are other foreign languages offered, and (if so) whether they offer a regular pace level 1 course. But it seems unlikely, given that Spanish is the most common foreign language offered in US high schools, so that other foreign languages typically have more limited offerings, if they are offered at all.