School gains approval for advanced program

After years of preparation, a Pasco school will be able to offer the International Baccalaureate program to this year's rising juniors.

By KENT FISCHER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 6, 2001

LAND O'LAKES -- It took a few years, but the Pasco County School District's fledgling International Baccalaureate program has finally gained full accreditation.

International Baccalaureate is considered among the toughest high school programs around and uses a curriculum developed in Europe. Pasco's program started two years ago with a group of ninth-graders at Land O'Lakes High School, and the recently-won accreditation means that its first class of students can enter their junior year as full-fledged IB students.

The International Baccalaureate curriculum starts in 11th grade; the previous two years are considered a "pre-IB" program.

"We are really excited," said Caryn McDermott, an assistant principal at Land O'Lakes in charge of the program. "It's taken a lot of steps and now we're officially participating."

Teachers say IB, as the program is commonly known, is equivalent to cramming the last two years of high school and the first year of college into a student's junior and senior years. IB graduates often leave high school having taken so much advanced course work that they skip their first year of college.

There are currently 190 students enrolled in Pasco's IB program, which is based in Land O'Lakes but draws students from all over the county.

In other district news, School Board members heard a request Tuesday from the son and daughter of Greta Adams, a former Dade City principal who died last October. Mrs. Adams' children, Tammie Arias and William Adams, asked the board to honor their mother and teacher Martha Walker with a a plaque in the gym at Pasco High School.

Both Greta Adams and Walker made a personal push to raise money to build the gym, and both dedicated their careers to teaching in Dade City.

"They did not just teach for the Pirates, they were the Pirates," Arias said.

The board did not take action on the request, but said it may be placed on the agenda for an upcoming meeting.

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