The Waco Independent School District plans to expand the International Baccalaureate program through 12th grade but has yet to add up the cost of implementing it.

Waco High School teachers will begin IB training this summer to offer the program in ninth through 12th grades.

The school will adopt IB in the ninth and 10th grades at all academic levels as an expansion of the IB “middle years” program that Tennyson Middle School and Lake Air Intermediate School, which began this year.

Mountainview Elementary School pre-kindergarten student Angel Melgarejo shows his angry face to classmates as he presents his project, “How Do I Express Myself: Feelings and Art.”
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald

Teachers on the junior and senior level also will be trained in IB, as the school readies to offer a rigorous IB diploma program, which will operate as a school within a school on the campus.

International Baccalaureate is an internationally recognized program that focuses on instilling a global outlook in students and helping them develop socially, physically, emotionally and culturally, and academically.

Students are taught to strive to be caring, risk-taking and open-minded, among other characteristics.

The district has received a grant of $150,000 from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation to help in get the diploma program under way.

“There are a lot of upfront costs,” Waco High Principal Clarence Simmons said, including training and enhancing the school’s library to make sure the literature offered reflects IB’s global focus.

District officials considered taking on the IB diploma program in 2008 at the same time they were considering the IB primary years program for Mountainview Elementary School.

At that time, the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation promised $150,000 for the diploma program, and the Waco Business League pledged $10,000 a year for three years for the IB program at Mountainview.

The board gave Mountain-view the go-ahead but put the diploma program on hold, largely because the district was staring down significant budget constraints.

In 2008, trustee Pat Atkins questioned whether it was fiscally sound to pursue the diploma program.

He is still asking the same question today.

“We have not seen the budget numbers of what it will cost to put in the full middle-years program, including foreign language and technology, for every freshman and sophomore at Waco High School,” Atkins said.

Trustee David Schleicher said he thinks IB is worth the money it will take to implement it.

“It’s an internationally recognized brand. Parents are looking for objective assurance that their kids are getting a good education, and this provides it,” he said.

“I think this will keep some families in the district and attract new ones,” he added.

Atkins and Superintendent Roland Hernandez said the administration and the board have not examined the full cost of the IB program during the next several years.

Early estimates show the IB program cost a little more than $100,000 to implement each of the first couple of years at Mountainview.

The IB program at Lake Air and Tennyson was estimated to cost $156,200 this year and $164,700 the second and third years.

Administrators said campus budgets were expected to absorb much of those costs, and about $92,000 in federal stimulus funds could be applied to the costs each of the three years of the IB certification process.

“We hope we can continue to find people who want to support the program,” Hernandez said.

He said the district will have to be more proactive in seeking grants and funding for programs like IB.

Tom Stanton, executive director of the Rapoport Foundation, said the foundation will follow the district’s progress and could invest more money into the IB program.

Hernandez said the district’s hope has been that as Mountainview’s IB program got up and running, the district would pursue expansion.

He said IB representatives visited Mountainview and were impressed to find that the school is ahead of schedule in its process of becoming IB. The school is finishing its second year of pursuing IB.

This year was the exploratory year for Lake Air and Tennyson, and both schools have been sending teachers to IB training.

Tennyson Principal Nina Le Blanc said the school just submitted its application to become a candidate school this month.

Next year, the IB program will begin to take shape at the school.

“We’ll also start making our building look more like what the IB organization expects it to look like,” Le Blanc said, including displaying more student work.

Atkins said he has fielded concerns from parents this year about the implementation of IB at Lake Air and Tennyson.

Lake Air doesn’t have the foreign language piece that IB requires, and the school also has not figured out how to fit the technology component into the class schedule yet, he said.

“My preference would be that we successfully implement the middle-years program before we go too far down the road of the diploma program,” Atkins said.

Simmons, the Waco High principal, said the program is one more piece — like dual-credit courses and career and technology courses — in helping the school grab the interest of all children.

“This is something I’ve always dreamed of,” Simmons said, “because of the relevancy of all classes and how those classes tie into each other.”

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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