Katy ISD is moving forward with plans to establish a tri-level International Baccalaureate program at Wolfe Elementary School for students in elementary, junior high and high school.
More than 50 people attended a meeting on Oct. 28 to hear details about the proposal. The meeting, led by assistant superintendent for school and community engagement Marcy Canady, was an orientation on the program as well as an invitation to community members to consider volunteering to serve on a new program design committee.
“My goal is to assemble a diverse group of people who are representative of all of Katy ISD and who will work as a team that is united in bringing the best possible program design forward for consideration of the superintendent and board of trustees,” Canady said in a Nov. 5 press release.
Canady said the committee would be formed the week of Nov. 9 and the planning process would kick off Nov. 18 when the group meets for the first time. A recommended design plan will be brought to the board in March and the project will then move to the facilities planning committee in May, she said.
In an overview, Katy ISD director of GT and advanced academic skills Alene Lindley described the IB program at the high school level as a rigorous college preparatory program which infuses global studies, community service work and students’ mastery of French, Spanish or a third language into its curriculum.
The IB Program features a curriculum with emphasis in humanities, arts, languages, technology, science, mathematics, and physical education, school officials said.
Lindley said the main benefit of the IB program is that it fosters in children of all ages the desire to become independent thinkers, excellent communicators and lifelong learners.
She said the Primary Years Programme would serve students in elementary school grades Kindergarten-5; the Middle Years Programme is for grades six-10 and the prestigious IB Diploma Program is for senior high school students in grades 11-12.
“It is very unique to have a school with all three programs at the same site,” Lindley said.
Only 13 schools in North America meet this criteria. The target date for opening the Wolfe School is 2013.
Designed and administered by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization, fees associated with receiving IB certification are $7,000 for the Primary program, $8,000 for the middle years; and $9,600 for the IB Diploma Program in addition to other costs.
According to the organization’s Web site, there are more than 756,000 IB students at 2,741 schools in 138 countries. (http://www.ibo.org/)
The program design committee is scheduled to meet 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays from November to March. Currently, meetings are planned for Nov. 18, Dec. 12, Jan. 13, Feb. 3 and March 17.
For information, visit the Wolfe School Site Project page at www.katyisd.org/.
Do you support the district's plan to estblish an IB program?
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Comments
United Nations International Baccalaureate Programme
http://www.truthaboutib.com/
This school is being pushed by our liberal school board and the liberal school superintendent that they hired.
Do your homework. Go read the information on the web site cited above.
Most of you in Katy are very upset with the national government and things that are happening like the events at Ft. Hood this week. Where do you think that stuff starts? It starts with the education of children. When our public schools are not teaching knowledge, but instead are trying to make children behave in certain ways, pushing multiculturalism and globalism and political correctness on them, dumbing them down by not teaching them how to read, how to do real math, about history and science and filling their heads with other leftist ideas, allowing SAT scores to decline every year, lessening yearly the number of graduates who are able to acquire a college degree, how does anyone think their children are going to grow up and be like their parents, i.e., capitalists and lovers of freedom who can earn enough to support a family comfortably?
The minds of your children are at stake here, and all of you need to wake up.
A United Nations IB school is a natural outgrowth of the dumbed down curriculum currently in place in our Katy public schools. It's no surprise that it's being spun as a great thing to have. It's not!
The school board needs to gut it up and build the east end taxpayers a new traditional elementary school like they should have had a long time ago. They've been paying with their taxes for everyone else to have a new elementary school, and it's high time they had one too.
But nothing's going to change as long as the public allows this liberal school board to sit and mindlessly vote "yes" to every single thing placed in front of them.
Mary McGarr
Multiculturalism
Mary,
I believe that the teaching of multiculturalism is VERY good thing. Our students need to know how to interact with folks on a GLOBAL basis. Do you only want them to live in Katy and never more? Do you want them to only interact with the locals?
I'm not sure I understand your thought process in comparing what happened at Fort Hood. That is a very sad situation and I don't think it is relevant here. But that seems to be your twist on it!
Hey Katy Taxes....I'm back!!
Shaking my head...
JAT!!!
I thought you weren't eligible for parole for another couple of years - glad to see you sprung the coop! lol jk
I was going to ignore this thread...
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The opinions expressed above are solely mine... just ask my spouse. lol
Multiculturalism
Spot on, JAT. My all-American blonde-haird, blue-eyed kids feel lucky to have friends of many different ethnicities. They have learned much about their different friends' religions (muslim, buddhist, etc.) and places of origin (India, Packastan, Mexico, etc.). This knowledge has enriched their lives and taught them tolerance and understanding of others' cultures. I dare say it has actually made them more intelligent. The tradegy at Ft. Hood should not be used as an excuse for our 'rebel' friends to spout their venom.
I thought Mary said it was the education folks in Austin that is ruining public. Now the blame seems to be shifted to multiculturism.
Oh, and my kids will never be taught to 'behave in certain ways'. They are much too intelligent (one has a 140 IQ), open-minded and open to new ideas to be forced into the local Katy-way-of-thinking. They will indeed pay their own bills because of their hunger for knowledge and quest for new experiences that will most likely land them in fantastic careers, and possibly even outside of Texas (oh no).
Or maybe they should just graduate high school in Katy, go to A&M for a couple years, and wind up back in Katy where they will reproduce like mice, raise their kids to be narrow-minded racists that know nothing about the world outside Katy. My kids can then send my future narrow-minded Katy grandchildren to the Katy ISD schools where they will be threatened for voting for a black democratic in the school's mock election, be taught creation in science, and receive an authoritarian, do-not-think-outside-the-box, memorize and regurgitate education that Mary is hoping for.
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