District Considers Making Streams Elementary an All-IB School
Superintendent plans to meet with parents in June and August.
The Upper St. Clair School District is considering the possibility of converting Streams Elementary into a full International Baccalaureate (IB) school.
Parents of students will soon be receiving letters from Superintendent Patrick O'Toole. He will hold a meeting for parents in June and August to seek public input.
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is recommending the district make a decision whether to convert the elementary school into an all-IB school by the end of September 2011. If implemented, the change would not take place until the 2012-13 school year.
Rebecca Stern, vice president of the Upper St. Clair School Board, stressed that no decision has been made.
"Any decision would be made after careful consideration and would be part of a comprehensive review of the distribution of all elementary students," Stern said in an email.
The IB Primary Years Program (PYP), offered only at Streams Elementary in Upper St. Clair, is becoming increasingly popular. The participation has grown from 20 percent of the students at Streams to 80 percent, according to Dr. O'Toole. He said there is a waiting list that varies in length in each grade level, but averages to about 15 students in each grade who would like to join IB PYP.
"We do have parents who come to Upper St. Clair for the IB program, therefore it has remained a choice for them," O'Toole said. "It's been popular. Numbers have grown in the PYP and Middle Years programs."
It's too early to determine whether the move would be a cost-saving or cost-adding move for the district, according to O'Toole. The move could reduce staffing costs if less staffing were needed for the traditional classrooms. It could also increase costs due to additional training.
"It will depend on the enrollment," O'Toole said.
The superintendent said he does not yet know where the students enrolled in the traditional program at Streams Elementary would go. However, he did say Baker Elementary has the lowest enrollment in the district. Baker has about 100 fewer students than Eisenhower Elementary and has classroom space, according to O'Toole.
The IB PYP program is available to first through fourth grades. It does not affect kindergarten. No changes in the IB programs are anticipated at the middle school or high school levels.
O'Toole said more information will be going out in his letters and he encourages parents to attend the meeting in June or August.
In This article
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Upper St. Clair School District Administrative Office
1820 McLaughlin Run Rd, Upper St Clair, PA -
Streams Elementary School
1560 Ashlawn Dr, Upper St Clair, PA -
Baker Elementary School
2300 Morton Rd, Upper St Clair, PA -
Eisenhower Elementary School
100 Warwick Dr, Upper St Clair, PA
USC Informed
8:25 pm on Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Looks like you stole this article from the USC Informer!
Maybe do your own work?
Karie Coe
9:25 pm on Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Ouch!
Becky Brindle
9:27 pm on Tuesday, May 31, 2011
USC Informed, I'm very sorry you feel that way. However, the article and quotations completely come from original reporting done on Tuesday afternoon.
Alicia Hawkins
8:50 am on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
There is at least one major difference between USC Informer and the Patch reporters. The Patch reporters identify their work with their NAMES. I am always skeptical of any "reporting" or mailing from anonymous "concerned" sources. It is untrustworthy and just plain creepy. Thank you to USC Patch for independent, professional reporting by actual reporters
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prsmitty
7:56 am on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Having a child who was in the Streams IB program for grades 1-4 and who now is at Boyce in the IB program, I've been able to see the large influx of students from Baker and Eisenhower who came into the IB program in 5th grade. With such an increasing interest, I think investigating the possiblity of making Streams an all-IB school is worthwhile. It seems that it would be more cost-effective than training teachers at the other elementary schools to begin IB there. I did appreciate the fact that Streams offered the option of IB vs. non-IB. But that option wouldn't necessarily be gone...the students would just attend school in a different building if opting out of IB. Baker seems like a good logistical choice, since it isn't at all far from Streams in location.
Thanks, Becky, for writing this article. I wouldn't have known about these plans at Streams without reading about it in Patch, and I have a child who will be in Kindergarten in the fall of 2012 making this info pertinent to us. I'm sorry you had to encounter "attitude" from some others regarding this story.
Lou
10:22 am on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
What taxpayers may have forgotten is that in 2008, the cost of a USC IB diploma was $90,000, as compared to an ALL AMERICAN award-winning USC diploma of $11,000. Remember - USC was an award-winning school district BEFORE the IB program. The IB program is a foreign-based curriculum. So, our IB program is enticing for employees of big corporations who transfer to the US? What's wrong with their children learning the AMERICAN education system?
Carl
10:03 pm on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Maybe Dr. O'Toole should reconsider the massive cost it will take to bus these children to another school!
prsmitty
10:11 pm on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Baker is, what, less than a mile from Streams?
prsmitty
10:10 pm on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
I know everyone will have their own opinion on the value of the IB program. What I can say, after having my daughter in it from grades 1-5, is that it has taught her to be a better THINKER....to dig deeper into the meaning behind things, to try harder, and even to broaden her thinking. We are a conservative-minded family, so i'm not at all meaning "broaden" in a political way. I just mean that she is now aware that everything doesn't revolve around her. I don't know what the IB program will be like in the high school. But I can say without question that throughout elementary, the IB students I encountered (and I volunteered a lot!) seemed to have a greater dedication to their studies than what I saw with non-IB students. Not across the board, mind you, but in general. They seemed to be "in to" their education more. We have really enjoyed it. And each teacher we dealt with was just wonderful.
Another Teacher
8:21 am on Sunday, June 5, 2011
Prsmitty, how do you know the "traditional" curriculum would not have taught her to think? Did she actually try both in order to compare? News Flash: IB does not have a corner on the market of good teaching methods nor is their method proprietary or necessarily different from what is happening in every other classroom in your school district. Your district administration has made it clear from the beginning that curriculum is the same. Students move in and out of the program without a hitch. IB is simply a label and it creates an undue burden on the district requiring staff shifting, student redistricting and busing, and constant work arounds in the high school to accommodate IB course requirements that attract fewer and fewer students. In addition, because AP and IB classes are combined, both programs are jeopardized and students are getting lower scores on both tests.
Why has this happened in a school district that has always been known for its academic excellence (and probably with good marketing could sell its on label)? Because a few indoctrinated parents and liberal activists ginned up a movement that the teachers and PTA got behind to defeat a school board that wanted to bring sanity back to the district.
So now you have gotten what you voted for: Accommodation at a high cost for a program that is unnecessary, other programs being cut as a result, staff reductions elsewhere and bigger class sizes, taxes going through the roof. Congratulations!
Alicia Hawkins
7:39 am on Monday, June 6, 2011
Thank you to all the out-of-state, non-residents of our community for your interest in Upper St. Clair. Believe me, we get it.
Did you know that we were named one of the ten best places to live in the United States by US News and World Report in 2009? Did you know that we have been ranked by the Pittsburgh Business Journal as the Number 1 School District in Pennsylvania for 6 years in a row? So, while we appreciate and understand your interest in our wonderful community, maybe your talents and time are best spent in your own communities and states?
ed henry
2:05 pm on Monday, June 6, 2011
Alicia: Thanks for the enlightening post.
Lisa, John and other non-local, anti-IB campaigners: Although the local Patch websites don't limit comments to residents of the applicable communities (nor should they), your crusades against the USC IB program ring hollow if you don't have a deep rooted, personal interest in analyzing the benefits and costs of the program at a local level. Your actions also beg the question of where your true interests really lie. Personally, I think we have enough intelligent people in the community on both sides of the IB issue to have our own discussion about these issues without your input.
Peg
8:16 am on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Unfortunately, no one is allowed to disagree with the IB program without the ACLU being brought into the battle. I am a community member who has opposed IB from it's inception. The program was brought in by an administrator who was working on her doctorate and needed to implement a new program. The same administrator had no children of her own and no vested interest in the outcome of IB on the community as she soon left the district. Whenour child was "offered" the chance to become a member of the initial IB PYP class, it was fed to parents as a program for gifted students. Students were to be selected for the opportunity to participate. As parents and consumer of USCs educational system, we did our homework, and researched the IB program. What the district was telling parents and what was true were two very different things. We opted out of the program and are extremely grateful we did. We have watched as the program segregated children from the rest of the student body and develop an air of elitist entitlement; as a program earmarked for the "gifted" turned into a program where anyone who did not opt out and all new students to the district were forced into the program to up their numbers; as special needs students were placed in the IB classes to again up their numbers and special needs programs suffer lack of funds; taxpayer dollars fund a program that is extremely expensive and only serves a small number of student; overcrowding of classrooms for all other students....
bob balmer
11:32 am on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Lisa, No one "got to me" and I am not a waves member. the only reason I objected to do away with IB because a board member cited in voting to ending the program was because it was against their judo christian beliefs. I also believe that is the only reason the aclu got involved. I could be wrong and most times unfortunately I am. I am not against getting rid of the program.
Another Teacher
7:18 am on Sunday, June 12, 2011
I think a lot of residents felt that way Bob about what one board member said. However, I believe the ACLU got involved because the head of it in our region had a son in the IB program at the HS. The board member's comment gave him an excuse to bring them in. And that was that. The board gave in under pressure from rising legal fees. They reinstated IB, were forced to put together a review committee--stacked with IB supporters hand-picked by the pro-IB, anti-School Board superintendent. This committee conducted a completely biased review, used the statistics to make the argument they wanted and ignored the opinions of the few on it that strongly disagreed with their findings. They even threatened these few with another lawsuit if they continued to publicize their viewpoint. Four brave members published a Minority Report that was short, clear and scientific. It said what we all know--that IB is an expensive, unnecessary program. That it does not belong in USC but rather is better suited to a Charter School environment. That the program interrupts the flow in the HS schedule, segregates students in the same school buildings, and has shown absolutely no positive gain in academic achievement as compared to the USC curriculum. There were even some indications that the program is damaging in that it siphons off resources from other programs, classrooms, and pursuits.
USC Resident
9:44 am on Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I agree with Alicia - let's let the locals have their say. Lisa is not unknown in the IB controversy and has made quite a bit of hay on the back of the events that happened here five years ago. Those of us who live in the community have moved on. Why John Eppolito, from Incline Village, Nevada, is posting here, is curious to me.
Let the district do their work and make their recommendations.
Another Teacher
7:32 am on Sunday, June 12, 2011
No one inside the school district will speak against IB. Teachers who don't like it are muzzled...for fear of retaliation. The Superintendent can not speak out against IB for fear of losing his job. Political opponents are smeared--called religious fanatics, bigots. Pro-IB'ers tell parents that any one who opposes this School Board will ruin the schools. No one wants to run against them because of the constant harassment they recieve from their opponents supporters. Take a look at the recent comments on this page. Pro-IB'ers reply to our arguments not with arguments that make their case but instead they are personal attacks--we are outsiders, who have no business in this forum--or lame anecdotal gushes--IB teaches students to think harder and Upper St Clair was voted to be one of top ten places to live. Now that is thinking! (Sarcasm) I have yet to have a real discussion with anyone who supports this fluff.
Kelly Mann
5:34 pm on Saturday, June 11, 2011
Having a child in a PYP program- I am in disbelief- that this IB philosophy has hijacked the whole learning process- When I was in high school it was optional- but apparently that is not the case anymore- Apparently I am not capable of teaching my child to be caring, open minded- on all the other learner profiles constantly beat to a pulp at our school- I want my kids to get an education not schooling on how to recycle, be tolerant of the cultures around them- they are just elementary kids! This is the biggest scam I have ever seen- and most expensive- The schools must cater their whole curriculum to IB- We have a 7 year old doing a project on Fairy Tales as told in other countries- Waste of my kids time- We have kids pondering who am I in this world, What is my place, etc.... This sounds like a sociology class- not school! Let the people learn about what this program is really about- and remember your kids will be loosing 7 hours a day to learner profiles and their little planners- as opposed to learning the core academics- Science, Math, English, American History!
Alicia Hawkins
12:25 pm on Sunday, June 12, 2011
The following is a link to the USC IB Review
http://webinfo.uscsd.k12.pa.us/_schoolwires/district/pdf/IBProgramReview.pdf
Few thoughts: (i) Streams is 80%+ IB, with a waiting list. IB in middle school is 30%+ and IB at the high school is just under 30%. (5th grade was 50% IB this year and the IB team in 7th grade had 40+ more than the other 2 teams.) The issue has become the increasing number of students choosing IB. (BTW - Baker is 1.1 miles from Streams and has the lowest elementary school enrollment.) (ii) Expense - IB (est. 1200 kids) costs about 1/2 of the football program (est. 200 boys). I think the school district should look at an activity fee for all activities. I would be ok if that included IB, even though not an activity. (iii) Every 2nd grader in USC has a unit on fairy tales (most of which are European). When my child was in IB, she did projects in addition to what the traditional curriculum provided, not instead of. (iv) It is difficult to have a reasoned, respectful discussion when the people opposing the program insist on using pejorative terms. I don't agree with Trish's characterization of events. However, I don't know that it moves the discussion forward to dispute the characterization.
Bottom line for me - with the state funding cuts and teacher pension liability, everything should be looked at in a reasoned, calm manner and not as a blood sport. That means respecting all community points of view without disdain.
Vito Eppolito
11:21 am on Saturday, September 24, 2011
Alicia,
Here is what everyone should know before deciding to force all students into IB,
http://myinclinevillage.com/2011/07/31/what-all-parents--students-should-know-before-enrolling-in-ib.aspx
Unfortunately people don't want the community to have all the facts before making the decision.
In the, almost 300 page, report does it say Streams will be forced by IBO to get in compliance with IBO regulations and force all students into IB or drop IB all together?