Reminder on Contacting the School Board
I know we all live busy lives juggling many things on our plates, so I just wanted to send out a reminder to let the Board of Education know that we would like advanced and gifted education in our schools. If you have any specific preferences, such as magnet schools, IB schools, pull-out programs, partial acceleration, or other methods, please let the Board know. The Board of Education will not act unless they know that this is an important issue to us.
To write the Board, go to the Contact the Board web page and fill out the form. Thanks for taking a few minutes to help make a difference!
Also, I will be speaking during Public Comment at the beginning of the meeting this Monday to encourage the Board to bring the International Baccalaureate program to K-12 for Rochester Community Schools. This has been a highly successful program in the Bloomfield school district, but only about 25% of Rochester students who want to go are chosen in the lottery. Why should the other 75% miss out when RCS could offer the same experience for our children?
Thank you for reading Rochester SAGE!
Rochester Supports Advanced & Gifted Education!
Rochester SAGE - Supporting Advanced & Gifted Education 
I think bringing a high-value curriculum like I.B. to Rochester would be fantastic. The biggest impediment, right now, is money.
During the last couple of budget years, the current IA program was always on the cutting block. It’s been identified as one of the lowest levels of curriculum (on a scale of 1-6, regular K-12 ranks as a 1, and the IA program ranked a 6).
The 2011-2012 budget year looks to be facing at least a $6.5 million budget deficit. It’s very likely the IA will be on the chopping block again, which would take the district in completely the wrong direction.
Jeremy, could you specify what you mean by “lowest levels of curriculum”? Does this mean lowest priority, lowest results, or something else?
Also, I was under the impression that sending students to the International Academy actually saves RCS money as only about 90-95% of the per pupil funding was sent to the IA and the rest was retained by RCS. Therefore, we actually keep a few hundred dollars per student who attends the IA. Is this not the case? I had thought essentially getting some free money for kids who attend the IA would be one of the biggest barriers to setting up our own IA program in Rochester schools.