52 Students Complete Pre-I.B. Applications

SEBRING - The school district received 52 completed applications from students who want to take pre-International Baccalaureate (I.B.) courses next school year.

The Highlands County School District is working toward starting an I.B. diploma program, which upon approval would officially begin with grade 11 in the Fall 2010.

To prepare the future I.B. students in ninth- and 10th-grades, the high schools will offer more rigorous course work in August.

The 52 applicants include 11 who are currently in high school with the remaining (41) being eighth-graders.

The applicant numbers according to the high school they will be attending next school year follows: four at Avon Park High, 12 at Lake Placid High and 36 at Sebring High.

"We are still working on some of those applications so hopefully we will get a few more there [Avon Park High]," said Lake Placid High Principal Ruth Heckman, who is heading the district's I.B. effort. "I expected more in the Avon Park area ... about 10 to 20 more than we actually got, but it's a new program and a lot of people are going to sit back and wait and see."

Application requirements include a minimum of a 3.0 grade point average, achievement on standardized tests and recommendations from four teachers. Also, the application required a writing sample from students.

School Board Chairman J. Ned Hancock said he believed there would be low participation from the current ninth-graders because they would not have an opportunity to earn an I.B. diploma.

"If there are 40 to 45 freshmen and 15 to 20 sophomores for the program next year, then I would say that's what I expected," he said.

Once the program starts there will likely be 45 to 50 students in each grade level, Hancock said.

Heckman said parents will be notified soon about their child being accepted into the pre - I.B. classes and what they need to do next.