ISD has joined the IBO!

 

Dear Parents,

 

I am very excited to inform you that ISD has been invited to join the International Baccalaureate Organization as we have been granted status to offer the IB Diploma Program!  We will now officially be known as and IB World School!

 

The authorization process was started a number of years ago with a visionary group of Trustees looking ahead and planning for the future.  Last year, Trustees instructed Wayne Rutherford and Mike Emborsky to go ahead with the initial application.  This year Wendy Welander was hired as the IB Coordinator and she has done an amazing job in following up on all the details.

 

For a while at the end of last year, it looked as thought the IBO would not let us apply and be approved this year as they had recently changed their requirements to a two year preparation period.  With a lot of pressure from Brad Bell, Wendy and me, we were able to get the IBO to agree to an 18 month prep period and so I am very pleased to congratulate Wendy and her team for the in depth preparations required for our most recent authorization visit. Many students, staff, parents and Trustees were involved in meeting with our visitors and creating a wonderful opportunity for the visitors to get to know us and so my thanks go out to them as well.

 

I also want to thank everyone responsible for ensuring that ISD’s facilities could support the IB program-Ian Hogg worked very hard in getting our new Upper School building finished and outfitted with science labs and with ensuring our library was completed in time for the visitors from the IBO. 

 

Wendy will be writing more about the commendations we received from the IBO and I want to point out two exemplary areas for ISD. The first is the second language program of French and Spanish-our visitors truly thought we were above and beyond for how we deliver these courses. We have been granted status to offer both French and English as Language A or mother tongue courses and we hope to eventually be able to offer other Language A courses if sufficient numbers of students request it.  Our second area of strong commendation is in the Service Learning area-huge thanks and congratulations to all students who participate in our programs at Samusocial and the Pouponniere and fundraising for our sister school in Pikine-our visitors were most impressed!

 

I invite you to join me in celebrating this enormous success, which will really set off our 30^th Anniversary celebrations next year! Please join me in congratulating our Trustees, and staff for the excellent job done in preparing for this authorization and in thanks and congratulations to Wendy Welander for all her efforts in achieving this goal!

 

Best Regards,

Barb