Parents Question Proposal to Make Streams Elementary an All IB School

Upper St. Clair Superintendent Patrick O’Toole and several administrators were peppered with questions Wednesday night during a sometimes heated “open-mic” session to discuss a proposal to convert to an all International Baccalaureate program in the 2012-13 school year. 

Eighty percent of the students who attend Streams Elementary are enrolled in the program with another five percent on the waiting list. Those students are drawn from Streams, and the district’s two other elementary schools, and . Rather than continue with a “school within a school,” the Switzerland-based organization, which designs the curriculum, is strongly recommending that Streams become all IB. 

The two biggest concerns expressed by the approximately 60 parents in the audience at were choice and control. 

Parents who live closest to Streams but who don’t want their children enrolled in the IB program questioned where they would go if Streams became all IB. 

Dr. O’Toole said no final decisions had been made, but indicated students seeking the traditional program would likely go to the elementary school with the least enrollment, currently Baker Elementary. Streams Elementary and Baker Elementary are about a mile apart, while Eisenhower Elementary is about four miles from Streams Elementary. 

Some parents also questioned whether the was seceding too much control of its curriculum to the IBO and expressed fears the organization would eventually take over the entire district. 

O’Toole was quick to point out that the IB program is voluntary and that all district wide decisions are, and will continue to be, made by the school board. Four school board members were among those in the audience. 

The IB Primary Years Program (PYP), offered only at Streams Elementary has enjoyed popularity from its inception, growing from 20 percent to its current 80 percent of the students, according to Dr. O'Toole.

"We do have parents who come to Upper St. Clair for the IB program, therefore it has remained a choice for them," Dr. O'Toole said. "It's been popular. Numbers have grown in the PYP and Middle Years programs."

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.

Dr. O’Toole says parents in the district will be surveyed about the proposal before any final recommendation is made to the school board. He expects that recommendation will come in January.

A second “open-mic” session is scheduled for Sept. 19, again in the Boyce Middle School LGI at 7 p.m.

Parents who plan to attend the open microphone sessions are asked to RSVP to openmike@uscsd.k12.pa.us.