Lack of Community Support only a Speed Bump in Implementing IB in Bow
Bow holds off diploma program
International courses stir local discontent
April 07, 2008 - 12:00 am
The Bow School District will suspend its application to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, after consideration of the program outraged a segment of the community.
“There’s enough disarray in the community perception of IB that I think we need more time for us to pursue it together, in a more collaborative way,” said School Board Chairwoman Pansy Bloomfield.
IB is a Switzerland-based program administered in 126 countries. If it were implemented in Bow, advanced students in their junior and senior years in high school would be able to take high-level courses and complete IB tests at the end of each one, in addition to filling several other requirements. They would then graduate with both an IB diploma and a regular high school diploma.
School officials had already submitted the first part of the application to make Bow High School an official candidate school. But it had not yet completed the second part, which included writing curriculum and preparing to implement the program.
Recently, IB has drawn criticism from community members who called it unnecessary and a waste of tax dollars. Some said the school should focus on enhancing its Advanced Placement classes instead and should not become beholden to an outside agency. The goal of the program is to understand subjects across cultures and disciplines, and it has also drawn criticism from at least one national organization that called it “un-American.”
At a Thursday night school board meeting that went until after midnight, the board voted 3-2 to hold off on the second part of the application. Superintendent Dean Cascadden said the district is still considering IB but wants to allow for more study and more communication with the community.
“There hasn’t been the communication, the community engagement that’s really needed to launch a program like this,” Cascadden said. “Let’s step back and get the information out, get the community to give feedback and make a decision later on whether this program’s a go or a no.”
Yesterday, Cindy Martin, a parent and Bow budget committee member who, speaking as an individual, opposed the program, said she was happy with the vote.
“I am very pleased that the townspeople did their homework and it seems, for one reason or another, understand the ramifications the IB program could mean to the taxpayers and the children of Bow,” she said.
Martin previously said that she opposed spending money on a new program, particularly one benefiting only a limited number of students, when local taxes were already rising.
At its meeting tonight, the budget committee is expected to vote on whether it would support funding the IB program.
Although the school board vote does not necessarily mean the end of the program for Bow, it does mean a delay. Previously, school officials had hoped that this year’s freshman class would be the first to participate in the program as juniors. Now, Cascadden said, even if the board eventually goes ahead with IB, it would not be ready by September 2009.
Cascadden said the deciding factor was hearing from many of the approximately 35 people who showed up at Thursday’s meeting. Although he said there was a wide range of opinions, there was enough concern by “reasonable, rational” people that the board felt the community did not adequately support the program.
The board cut $8,300 from the budget for IB, but still left $10,700 to allow for further study and professional development. The board will still hold a scheduled information meeting on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the high school.
“The board’s not of the mind to say IB’s gone, we’re never going to deal with it,” Bloomfield said. “We need some time, we need to talk about it in a different way, we need more information we can share with the community.”
The discussion of IB came up as part of a larger discussion of how to cut approximately $150,000 from the budget, as was voted on at the annual meeting.
Cuts that were approved include reducing a program assistant position and extra time for aides, cutting the field hockey B team at the middle school, the winter spirit program and the gymnastics program, eliminating three out of eight Destination Imagination coaches, and not creating a new position for a part-time assistant special education director.
There was also discussion about cutting back the school’s career program, which the board ultimately decided to support.
Source: Concord Monitor