There is nothing more important than investing in our most precious resource, our youth. It boggles my mind that people want to make cuts in education to solve economic problems. Teaching should be the most revered job in the country. Education should be our primary goal as a society. Students should be allowed to advance at their own pace. Thank You...
Tim

Interesting how your Superintendent posits the district as the victim of a "hijacking". How ridiculous. You were "outed", Superintendent Kriss. Plain and simple. Now you must deal with the backlash of your secretive attempts to waste Hauppauge taxdollars on this insidious program.

I want Hauppauge parents, students, teachers and taxpayers to pay close attention to what I am about to share with you. I have "been there and done that" when it comes to getting a school board to agree to retain AP alongside IB. I petitioned the LVCSD Board. I won - on paper, they agreed to offer AP. But what was the REALITY?

Pre-IB, LVHS offered 14 AP courses. When they brought in IB, all were eliminated except for 9th & 10th Grade AP European and World History (these were kept in order to boost LVHSs ranking on the Newsweek List). Although the district "agreed" to offer AP in 11th & 12th Grades, they didn't really. The Principal ordered the teachers and Guidance Counselors to push IB. Only IB courses were "recommended". As a result, the ONLY AP course to run in 11th Grade was AP U.S. History, because 17 students signed up for it. The district assigned its worst SS teacher to the course AND NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE 17 STUDENTS PASSED THE EXAM!!!!!

So as of today, LVHS offers 3 AP courses, all History, 2 of them in 9th and 10th Grades.

[Cont.]

[Cont.]

When my daughter was still in HS, I spoke with her Guidance Counselor who told me she had eight (8) (8 being the MINIMUM number of students required to run a course according to LVCSD Board policy) signed up to take AP English Lit. She was instructed by the Principal "to lose the list". The course never ran. The following year, the AP courses were removed from the course guide and the district claimed "there wasn't enough student interest" the prior year. Do you see how this works?

Your Superintendent disingenuously claims they will compile "IB data". HAHAHAHAHAHA! No they won't. In fact, trying to get ANY data related to IB will become your worst nightmare. LVCSD won't even release the number of IB Diplomas tried for and awarded each year without me filing a FOI request. Games were played with the budget where the district created an IB Code and then obfuscated IB spending for the prior year - because the Code didn't exist the prior year.

Hauppauge does not NEED IB. No American public school NEEDS IB. IB is superfluous, a waste of money, divisive AND anti-American. Please take note - the Chair of the IB North American Board is also a Senior Vice President of LA RAZA!!!! IB is a social justice scam. Here are the links to prove my statement:

http://www.ibo.org/council/members/pompa/
http://www.nclr.org/index.php/about_us/press_room/media_contacts/delia_pompa/

Would you invite the KKK into your schools? I don't think so!

Teachers in Redondo Beach say NO to IB:

http://redondobeach.patch.com/articles/50-redondo-union-teachers-say-no-to-ib

I would like to thank the Board of Education. Superintendent Sullivan-Kriss and Principal Christine O'Connor for listening to the community and their concerns over the elimination of the AP program and agreeing to keep the program while evaluating IB for Hauppauge. I would like to recommend to the District not to plan on phasing out AP as IB moves into the future as there will always be students that will prefer the AP program and its instructional style over the IB format.

Is anyone else outraged by Sullivan-Kriss' letter? So, now that she got caught trying to sneak this ridiculous IB program by the community, she's going to do us a favor now and phase out AP slowly? How dare she use the term "hijacked" to describe having to meet her obligation of keeping the community informed about changes in our school system. Despite what she claims in her letter, there is nothing transparant about her or the board's action in this matter. She claims it was "unfortunate" that there was such a low turnout for her first presentaton on IB. Well, maybe it was because she failed to INFORM the community that she was making a major change to the academic program. Every day, my children come home with advertisements for book fairs, sport clubs, this drive or that drive, etc. However, not once did i ever see a handout come home or get something in the mail about IB. If it wasn't for someone putting a flyer in our mailboxes, Sullivan-Kriss would still be persuiing this program in secret. Furthermore, how fiscally responsible is it to throw tax payer money at this IB application process while our economy is declining. In Garden City, where the average household income dwarfs that of Hauppauge residents, the community forced the board of education to disonctinue with the appplication process because it was too costly. Sullivan-Kriss doesn't need to continue "research " or "investigate" the merits of the IB program any further. (CONT)>>

Afterall, she lives in Rockville Centre where they already have the IB program. In additon, her husband (an elementary school principal in Oceanside) is a member of the Rockville Centre Board of Ed. I'm sure she is well aware of the many negatives associated with this program which is why it has been persued in secret here in Hauppauge. I challenge anyone reading this to contact as many people as possible from the 6 other school districts on LI that have this program to get feedback. I'm sure you will find what I and others have discovered That is, the majority of parents and students have nothing positive to say about this program. I wish I knew what Sulllivan-Kriss' real agenda was regarding the IB program, but I'm certain that it has very little to do with the best needs of our students.

Does the IB tie teachers hands or does it allow them to be more creative in meeting the needs of our students? Will IB better prepare our kids future (higher learning/career) or are the trade offs going to negatively impact the learning environment (especially for the middle of the road youngster who has yet to blossom)? If this program is to be implimented at no additional cost, what is going to be eliminated and at what "cost" ? WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO HOFF'S TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM ? OH YES BOCES. WILL THE IB SERVICE THOSE KIDS THE WAY HOFF DID?

No one goes through what this student went through, with AP:

http://truthaboutib.com/dearib.html