Minutes of Meeting - 8/28/08

[Cyndy Albert]

Rita Goldberg, Jackie Blacher, and Cyndy Albert met with Andy Weiss and Ms. Sevillanos to review the questions posed during our earlier meeting.

At present, there is no clear definition of how Scholars Academy will interact with those students who opt OUT of the IB track in 11th grade.

Students may be able to OPT IN to the IB track in 11th grade even if they have not been in Scholars Academy as long as they have already taken the requisite courses. The list of courses that will be required for students opting into the IB program from outside of Scholars will be posted and made clear to the non-Scholars Academy students.

Students in the IB track can still take AP courses as electives.

Some students entering 9th grade Scholars are taking Chemistry in 9th grade and would normally take AP Chem in 10th grade. Given that the IB track in 11th grade would offer only IB Chem and IB Biology initially, there was a discussion with Dr. Melinke about how this strand should be handled. If the 9th graders continued on this track they would end up having 3-4 years of Chemistry (AP PLUS IB Chem). Dr. Melinek suggested that 9th graders taking Chem, should take Physics in 10th grade and then IB Chem in 11th grade. Further definition of the Chemistry currciulum within the IB track is required before final suggestions to students are made.

IB and AP Courses will be weighted equally.

This committee will meet again in September and begin the process of putting together language for the new brochures. Additionally, we will contact all of the feeder pattern schools and once the brouchure is available, we will get it to those schools. We will also move forward on contacting the schools to set up dates for parent meetings as we move through the school year.