Power Point presentation delivered to East Valley Tea Party by T.J. Fantechi and Harry Mathews. Thank you to Duncan Koler of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for many of the slides presented.
Great work Arizona!
09/02/10
Help Stop IB Expansion in Mesa, AZ Schools
It would appear that the Mesa, Arizona, school district has been rather intent on bringing in IB since before 2006. In fact, both of these articles point to the district bragging about being a K-12 IB district:
In fact, The Mesa school district website claims it is already a K-12 IB district, yet a check of the official IBO website reveals that Westwood High School has been an authorized IBDP World School since 2005, and Robert Frost Elementary School was just authorized in December, 2009. It appears that Hendrix Jr. High and Westwood have not yet trained all of the teachers necessary to attain IB MYP authorization, while Mesa Academy claims to be in the final stages of the authorization process. Clearly there is vague information being conveyed to parents as to the actual IB status of schools in their district.
HERE is the IB Information page at Frost Elementary. It is important for parents to understand that this program has been implemented SCHOOLWIDE at Frost and if that is your neighborhood school, there is no opting out of IB for your child. The PYP is not a curriculum. It is a set of international "themes" that are integrated into every lesson your child will be taught.
Because of the number of foreclosures and job uncertainty in the Mesa/Phoenix region of Arizona, people are sitting up and taking notice of wasteful, unnecessary spending that directly affects their property taxes.
At Westwood HS, as with most IB World Schools, there is a prominently featured Model UN. Let's take a look at the Introduction from a student's paper on "Preventing State Sponsorship of Terrorism":
"There are many different definitions of “terrorism,” but there is no official definition by the United Nations. As we all know, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The obligation of Fourth Committee is not to define “terrorism,” but rather to take the existing definitions and create a framework for cooperation around them."
Is this what you want your children to learn?
According to the Westwood HS website, only 25 students earned the IB Diploma in 2009. It is also important to note that at Westwood HS, the only IB Math courses offered are Standard Level (SL) which are not the equivalent of AP AB/BC Calculus.
Expansion of the IB programmes in Mesa can be stopped, but it will require informed and concerned parents and taxpayers speaking out and making their elected officials aware of the fact that Arizona residents do not support the expenditure of their taxes on this expensive, globalist education. Closing 2 Schools?
This article, just out on 02/25/10, announces that the Mesa (Apache Junction Unified school district) will be closing an elementary and middle school, while reconfiguring the remaining MS to become a Junior HS.
TAIB happens to think reverting to a Jr. HS status is a very good idea, that the entire MS concept is flawed and that is why MSs tend to have a lot of problems. What is an extraordinarily BAD idea, is to make these schools IB academies.
Time: March 22, 2010 from 5:30pm to 6:30pm Location: Village Inn - NE Corner of Southern and Dobson in Mesa Organized By: Harry Mathews
Event Description: Education Action Committee Meeting items: Building awareness of the issues within the community is job one. Once there is a broader understanding about these issues with the general public we will be in a much better position to bring about reform. Politicians won’t bring about reform until a lot of people start demanding it.
1. Defining the issues a. Cost efficiency b. International Baccalaureate (IB) c. New Global Citizens d. Testing procedures e. Other? 2. Educate ourselves about the issues a. Share information b. Research more info c. Share new info 3. Dissemination of information a. Speaking at other conservative group meetings – sharing info resources b. Speaking to friends and family – sharing info resources
After the meeting we can join the Mesa tea Party meeting at MCC across the street
Meetings of the Mesa BoE are generally held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month at 7:00 PM, in the Board room at 549 N. Stapley Dr., Mesa.
Check the online notices in the above link for agenda items. Be sure to sign up for a "Request to Speak" form and hand it in to the Governing Board secretary at the beginning of the meeting. Public comments are usually limited to three (3) minutes.
Your local parent organizer for responsible education is TJ. Be sure to put "IB" in the subject line. E-mail TJ HERE and find out how you can get involved to stop wasteful spending in Mesa public schools!
Lame Superintendent's Reply
The following is the extraordinarily lame reply by the Superintendent of Mesa schools to TJ and her request for the International Baccalaureate program to be placed on a Board agenda:
Ms. ,
My name is Michael Cowan, Superintendent for Mesa Public Schools. I have been asked by Governing Board President David Lane to respond to your your request.
Thank you for your submittal of a Governing Board Meeting agenda item regarding the International Baccalaureate Program. After careful consideration of your request, it has been decided that rather than address your topic of interest in an upcoming meeting, it is more appropriate to share some information with you. I am pleased to share details with you about the district's International Baccalaureate elementary middle years, and diploma programs currently offered at 3 campuses for Mesa students.
As you may know, the International Baccalaureate Program, commonly referred to as IB, is a nationally and internationally recognized and applauded rigorous academic program of study that invites students to engage in concentrated studies. It is one of several educational offerings provided through the Mesa Public Schools to parents and their students. In addition to the comprehensive traditional educational services offered at our high schools, IB joins other quality learning options such as the Franklin Back-to-Basics, the Dual Language, AVID, and Project Lead the Way Pre-Engineering programs. We believe parents should be afforded choices when considering the education for their children. For that reason, we offer several top-notch, educationally sound options for them to consider.
Recently, the International Baccalaureate program has been announced as one of five recommended programs in current Arizona legislature that will significantly impact and influence high school programming in the future. This program, along with the ACT, Advanced Placement, Edexcel and Cambridge programs are identified as key programs designed to help students engage in academically challenging content, thus better preparing them for the rigors of post-secondary education experiences once they graduate from high school.
There are currently no plans to change or decrease our offering of the IB program for Mesa students. Many, many parents have expressed their interest in, and support for, the program. Enrollments continue to climb as parents consider the benefits and value of a program that promises academic rigor and is substantially supported by universities and colleges across the country (and around the world). Many of our students, once they leave the program, find themselves with scholarships or waived college credits at some of the finest American universities as a result of their IB studies.
Thank you, again, for your interest in the educational offerings in Mesa Public Schools.
Sincerely,
M. Cowan
Mesa Public Schools
Did anyone ask you for an IB sales pitch, Mr. Cowan? NO! A request was submitted for public discussion via your district's required procedure. That was a very poor tactical move on the district's part. Did you honestly think that would "solve" your PR problem? How much do you get paid to oversee the very large Mesa public school district?
