Wednesday, April 10, 2013
DATE POSTED: 4/8/13 5:39 PM
A plan by Superintendent Yvonne Brandon to expand Richmond Public Schools’ middle years International Baccalaureate program at Lucille Brown Middle School will more than double the cost for the city’s two IB programs, which currently cost roughly $214,000, bringing the total to about $484,000. Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones has proposed adding $500,000 in the next budget to bolster the city’s IB programs.
In comparison, Hanover County’s IB programs, currently available at four high schools, will cost about $186,000 next year, according to Hanover’s director of secondary education, Bob Staley.
Much of the cost for the Richmond expansion, as detailed in a proposal to be presented during tonight’s School Board meeting, pays for three new teachers, a part-time IB coordinator for Thomas Jefferson High School and about $40,000 in additional annual training for teachers at Lucille Brown.
Hanover County Public Schools' Staley touts the IB program’s affordability as well as its success in helping place students at top-tier universities around the country.
“We really don’t spend a whole lot of money on this,” he says, adding, “The results speak for themselves.”
Hanover’s program, according to numbers reported by the district to the Virginia Department of Education, awarded 55 IB diplomas last year. By comparison, Richmond’s program graduated nine in 2012 and had graduated five during the previous three years of the program.
Richmond Public Schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby was unavailable for comment today, and she delayed a scheduled interview with Richmond’s assistant superintendent of secondary instruction, Victoria Oakley, until Tuesday. But comparing individual line items in each school division, the picture appears to require some explanation.
Hanover currently pays $42,640 in annual program dues to the Switzerland-based International Baccalaureate Organization. Those are required to keep its four programs active. Meanwhile, according to Brandon’s proposed budget, the current year’s program dues for Richmond's two IB programs were $24,154, with those fees projected to increase next year to more than $47,000 in Brandon’s proposed budget. The IBO charges a fixed $10,660 per program for dues, Staley says, noting that the dues amount has decreased slightly.
Brandon’s proposal calls for an additional three IB elective teachers — in theater, foreign language and technology. An analysis of current staffing levels indicates that Lucille Brown’s program currently maintains class sizes between 11 and 15 students, a figure likely to remain unchanged under the new proposal.
Teacher training accounts for the next biggest increase proposed in Brandon’s plan, but the numbers provide few clues as to how that money will be spent. Currently, Hanover’s program spends about $48,000 annually to train about 32 teachers, Staley says, which is a little less than half of the total number of IB trained teachers in the four programs.
Richmond currently spends more than $37,000 on teacher training between Brown and TJ, according to Brandon’s proposed budget, and her proposal would add $40,000 annually to that, bringing the total spent on training to more than $77,000 each year, enough to provide training to 45 teachers each year, according the standard fees that Staley says the IBO charges for training.
Together, both Richmond programs currently comprise about 30 teachers, according to online school staff directories, and only 25 teachers according to Brandon’s proposed budget.
Although Brandon’s proposal stands to make IB classes available to all Lucille Brown students, the fact that the $270,000 cost increase amounts only to about 25 new IB slots at the school, phased in at each grade level, is enough to give pause to 4th District School Board representative Kristen Larson. She also expresses concern about Brandon’s ambitious plan to begin implementing the first phase of the program expansion later this month.
“I think we need to ensure that the public and the parents and all stakeholders have time for proper input, and I’m a little concerned with the timeline being proposed that there is not enough time for that input,” Larson says. “We also need to ensure that she is using the additional money we’re getting from City Council, that the money is being spent in the way that it ... offer[s] more options to more students, and we need to be sure that the accountability is there.”
Lucille Brown’s IB program currently has capacity for 225 students, or 75 in each grade. The proposed expansion makes IB classes available to all students zoned to Lucille Brown as well as to about 100 students in each grade level who apply from out of zone to attend IB.
Hanover currently has more than 400 students enrolled in IB classes, and because IB-trained teachers do not only teach IB classes, odds are good in Hanover that students never taking an IB class will still have IB teachers. There are between 15 and 18 IB teachers in each of Hanover’s four schools.
“They teach all kids,” Staley says. “They may have a block or two or three of IB classes, but ... I don’t know that we have anybody who teaches just IB."
The same is not the case in Richmond, according to Cosby, and according to the superintendent’s proposed budget, which presents a separate staff salary budget at both Brown and TJ for IB teachers.
Together, those budgets amount to about 25 teachers who together cost just shy of $2 million and who teach fewer than 450 students. Last year’s Richmond IB senior class was 17 students, according to RPS’ report to the state.
In comparison, Hanover County’s IB programs, currently available at four high schools, will cost about $186,000 next year, according to Hanover’s director of secondary education, Bob Staley.
Much of the cost for the Richmond expansion, as detailed in a proposal to be presented during tonight’s School Board meeting, pays for three new teachers, a part-time IB coordinator for Thomas Jefferson High School and about $40,000 in additional annual training for teachers at Lucille Brown.
Hanover County Public Schools' Staley touts the IB program’s affordability as well as its success in helping place students at top-tier universities around the country.
“We really don’t spend a whole lot of money on this,” he says, adding, “The results speak for themselves.”
Hanover’s program, according to numbers reported by the district to the Virginia Department of Education, awarded 55 IB diplomas last year. By comparison, Richmond’s program graduated nine in 2012 and had graduated five during the previous three years of the program.
Richmond Public Schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby was unavailable for comment today, and she delayed a scheduled interview with Richmond’s assistant superintendent of secondary instruction, Victoria Oakley, until Tuesday. But comparing individual line items in each school division, the picture appears to require some explanation.
Hanover currently pays $42,640 in annual program dues to the Switzerland-based International Baccalaureate Organization. Those are required to keep its four programs active. Meanwhile, according to Brandon’s proposed budget, the current year’s program dues for Richmond's two IB programs were $24,154, with those fees projected to increase next year to more than $47,000 in Brandon’s proposed budget. The IBO charges a fixed $10,660 per program for dues, Staley says, noting that the dues amount has decreased slightly.
Brandon’s proposal calls for an additional three IB elective teachers — in theater, foreign language and technology. An analysis of current staffing levels indicates that Lucille Brown’s program currently maintains class sizes between 11 and 15 students, a figure likely to remain unchanged under the new proposal.
Teacher training accounts for the next biggest increase proposed in Brandon’s plan, but the numbers provide few clues as to how that money will be spent. Currently, Hanover’s program spends about $48,000 annually to train about 32 teachers, Staley says, which is a little less than half of the total number of IB trained teachers in the four programs.
Richmond currently spends more than $37,000 on teacher training between Brown and TJ, according to Brandon’s proposed budget, and her proposal would add $40,000 annually to that, bringing the total spent on training to more than $77,000 each year, enough to provide training to 45 teachers each year, according the standard fees that Staley says the IBO charges for training.
Together, both Richmond programs currently comprise about 30 teachers, according to online school staff directories, and only 25 teachers according to Brandon’s proposed budget.
Although Brandon’s proposal stands to make IB classes available to all Lucille Brown students, the fact that the $270,000 cost increase amounts only to about 25 new IB slots at the school, phased in at each grade level, is enough to give pause to 4th District School Board representative Kristen Larson. She also expresses concern about Brandon’s ambitious plan to begin implementing the first phase of the program expansion later this month.
“I think we need to ensure that the public and the parents and all stakeholders have time for proper input, and I’m a little concerned with the timeline being proposed that there is not enough time for that input,” Larson says. “We also need to ensure that she is using the additional money we’re getting from City Council, that the money is being spent in the way that it ... offer[s] more options to more students, and we need to be sure that the accountability is there.”
Lucille Brown’s IB program currently has capacity for 225 students, or 75 in each grade. The proposed expansion makes IB classes available to all students zoned to Lucille Brown as well as to about 100 students in each grade level who apply from out of zone to attend IB.
Hanover currently has more than 400 students enrolled in IB classes, and because IB-trained teachers do not only teach IB classes, odds are good in Hanover that students never taking an IB class will still have IB teachers. There are between 15 and 18 IB teachers in each of Hanover’s four schools.
“They teach all kids,” Staley says. “They may have a block or two or three of IB classes, but ... I don’t know that we have anybody who teaches just IB."
The same is not the case in Richmond, according to Cosby, and according to the superintendent’s proposed budget, which presents a separate staff salary budget at both Brown and TJ for IB teachers.
Together, those budgets amount to about 25 teachers who together cost just shy of $2 million and who teach fewer than 450 students. Last year’s Richmond IB senior class was 17 students, according to RPS’ report to the state.
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