The Putnam County School Board approved phasing out the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Middle Years programs after this school year during its Thursday meeting.
The programs are being discontinued because of low student participation and high operating costs. Director of Schools Corby King said students tend to pursue different opportunities in advanced studies.
“We have talked about this before,” King said. “In times past, we didn’t have the robust dual enrollment program we have now. We didn’t have as robust an AP program that we have now. It’s just options students are choosing over IB.”
Cookeville High School Assistant Principal Claudia Zavala said just four of some 530 juniors were enrolled in IB this year. The IB program will be discontinued after this school year, so those students will not be able to complete their IB diplomas.
“We have communicated that with them and their parents, and they have agreed,” Zavala said. “They have agreed and understand the other options available to them.”
This year, Zavala said there are four senior diploma candidates. They will be able to obtain their IB diplomas when the year ends.
King said an average IB class had eleven students, and the small size puts strain on scheduling and resources. Educational supervisor Chris Winningham said he met with IB program teachers at the end of last school year, and they seemed to be on board with the change.
“Some of them expressed interest in switching to AP teaching and classes,” Winningham said, “And being trained, which is something that’s more cost effective. Like again, we can afford that over the cost of training for our IB teachers. Which I think right now, we’re looking at about $14,000 even just to catch up with training that’s needed for our IB teachers, so AP was and is much cheaper than that.”
Winningham made it a point to say cheaper is not always better, but the school system wants those teachers to be able to teach higher level material if they choose.
King said that the funds are not the driving factor in the decision, and if more students participated, the program may not have been cut. School Board member Kim Cravens said the program was brought back last year with the hopes of growing it with the Middle years program, but it did not happen.
“This wasn’t a recommendation that they made that was just looking at the additional professional development training, and the resources it was taking for students before sending the recommendation,” King said. “Really, it’s just student interest and what they’re taking advantage of now.”
King said the largest IB diploma graduating class came out a couple of years ago with ten students. King said on average, two or three students graduate with IB diplomas.
The Middle Years program was discontinued because it did not make sense to have one program and not the other. Winningham said affected faculty and stakeholders are aware of the change.
The School Board voted unanimously to approve the discontinuation of these programs at Thursday’s meeting.
In other business, the School board approved a one year contract with ParentSquare for communications, costing some $76,000.
The Board approved the purchase of furniture for the Early Learning Center totaling some $348,000.
