Local leaders like school's IB program
A field trip to Palm Harbor University High School impresses Hernando officials, who want to start an IB program of their own.
By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published January 11, 2006
PALM HARBOR - The trip took about an hour and a half in a yellow school bus, a 51-mile trek from the School Board offices in Hernando County to Palm Harbor University High School in north Pinellas County.
For the two Hernando County School Board members and the handful of school district administrators who made the journey Tuesday, the reward was a chance to view the school's International Baccalaureate program, a curriculum that might offer the most rigorous academic experience available for many high school students.
In some ways, the IB curriculum is similar to the Advanced Placement classes that students at many high schools take for college credit. But the IB program has many other stringent requirements. IB students study connections between six major study areas, produce independent research and take rigorous examinations to qualify for a special IB diploma that is recognized by many universities around the world.
Since opening as the second IB high school in Pinellas County in 1996, Palm Harbor has achieved a great deal of academic success. About 500 of the school's 2,250 students are enrolled in the IB program. Last year, 93.4 percent of the students who tested for IB diplomas received them. (St. Petersburg High was the first school in Pinellas to offer the IB program.)
Although students in Hernando County can take AP classes, school district officials say they want to offer more opportunities to the county's most talented students. After talking to officials at Palm Harbor, they want to speed up the process to create an IB curriculum, which could cost tens of thousands of dollars and take several years to put into place at a high school in Hernando.
"There are youngsters that need another challenge," said Hernando School Board Chairman Jim Malcolm.
Harry Brown, the principal of Palm Harbor, told the Hernando delegation about the rewards of the IB program. He described how students and parents love the rigor of the curriculum, and how those enrolled in difficult classes are able to get a leg up in the increasingly competitive college admissions process. Students have to apply for admission into Palm Harbor's IB program.
"We have set a very high bar," Brown said.
Students aren't the only ones challenged. Teachers of IB classes often have to do much more work than their counterparts in regular classes. The IB teachers at Palm Harbor get paid about 16 percent more because they have to put in longer days.
The Hernando delegation included two principals: Betty Harper of Hernando High and Susan Duval of Springstead High. Mary Krabel and Sonya Jackson, two other senior Hernando officials, also made the trip.
They spoke to officials at Palm Harbor and toured the school. They marveled at the books in an advanced chemistry class and listened as students in an advanced English class discussed a poem.
Then, as afternoon approached, they returned to Hernando. And they vowed to set up a similar program.
"We've got people driving their kids down (out of the county) for schools," School Board member Sandra Nicholson said. "We've got to keep them here."
Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.