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FUHSD governing board says 'yes' to Fallbrook IB program

A packed crowd attended the Fallbrook Union High School board meeting Monday, March 11. There were a host of topics on the agenda that night, but many community members showed up to voice strong opinions for bringing the International Baccalaureate program to Fallbrook. After hearing from a number of parents, teachers and students, the board voted and agreed 6-0 to move forward with the process to implement the IB program.

According to a FUHSD press release sent out after the meeting, Fallbrook High School was approved as a candidate school for the IB Diploma Program in June 2018 and career-related program in December 2018.

Fallbrook High School is pursuing authorization to become an IB World School, but the press release said that having the candidate status gives no guarantee authorization will be granted. Having the board's blessing, though, is a big step toward that ultimate goal, it said.

While authorization may still be a ways off, students will start to see the impact of IB as early as next year, with the launch of the "Fallbrook Global Village." The global village will offer ninth and 10th grade courses taught by IB-trained teachers with the goal to prepare students for the IB diploma and career-related programs in their 11th and 12th years.

Fallbrook's hope is to have next year's ninth-graders in the Global Village become the first class for IB if the authorization process is successful and completed on time.

The IB program aims to develop students who have excellent breadth and depth of knowledge as well as students who flourish physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically.

Fallbrook Principal Dr. David Farkas said, "We expect to have 150 entering the Global Village as freshman next year. These students will then begin to prepare to take IB classes when they become juniors. In a few years, I expect FHS to have an enrollment of over 2,100 students and over 400 in the IB program."

The IB diploma and career-related programs ensure that students are well-rounded and prepares them for the higher education and the world of work. IB graduates are academically prepared for university coursework. Research showed that they perform exceptionally well when compared to their non-IB peers.

"Even if a student takes one IB class, they are 80 percent more likely to continue from high school to college or university," George Herring, Fallbrook High School's IB coordinator, said. "That's a powerful motivator to get as many kids as we can into at least on IB course."

Brenda Mefford, FUHSD chief business officer, said Fallbrook High School has already spent to the tune of $76,000 on the potential IB program and looks to spend approximately $34,000 in 2019 and $37,500 in 2020 to begin implementing it. Costs would cover training teachers and writing a new curriculum for IB, as well as other fees associated with the IB process.

Mefford said those amounts are already included in the board's current budget. The funding comes from supplemental concentration, she said, which can be geared toward particular programs for students.

IB World schools share a common philosophy, which is a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education. Fallbrook High School said this philosophy is important for students in the FUHSD press release.

Board member Sharon Koehler said she's been waiting 10 years for Fallbrook to become an IB school. The former English teacher read a Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken," before the vote.

"We can continue to be an average school, or we can step into a group of elite schools around the world," Koehler said.

FUHSD board president Diane Summer said she's been skeptical about the IB program in past meetings, until she started doing her research and saw that the community was really pushing for it.

"The success of this is going to be basically based on the enthusiasm of the community," Summer said. "As you can see from the comments, we have struggled with this. When I researched this, I saw a lot of grace. I think this is the future, and the time to start."

Cari Hachmann can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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