INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — The fundraising chair for the local group tasked with funding International Baccalaureate at Incline's schools is concerned too much debate about the program's potential impact at the high school is taking away from potential benefits to the K-8 curriculum.

Bruno said IB's emphasis on critical thinking will benefit all of Incline's students, not just the top percentile that competes for placement at top colleges.

“It's not important that all students go to college, or all students get the IB Diploma,” said Incline resident Tom Bruno, a fundraiser for International Baccalaureate Incline Village. “Critical thinking is applicable to daily life, while simply memorizing facts is not.”

A car mechanic may or may not go to college, Bruno said, but he or she should have the ability to be an active and engaged citizens capable of employing analytical skills and making connections among diverse subject areas.

John Eppolito, an Incline parent who has been critical of IB and the current implementation schedule, shares a different view. He said the reason opponents of IB implementation focus on the high school is because that is where the most potential for damage exists.

“The high school will get downgraded because of IB,” he said. “It puts programs such as We the People in jeopardy. From an academic point of view, IB will be most harmful at the high school level.”

Eppolito said something must be done to improve the standing of Incline Elementary School and Incline Middle School, but said many parents are concerned about their young children subjected to United Nations-sponsored indoctrination.

“Parents might be open to IB at the K-8 levels if it was a choice,” he said. “Many of them don't like the UN ideology forced on the kids.”

Bruno said IB will instill consistency throughout the entire school system, thus helping students make successful and seamless transitions from one grade to the next.

“With the implementation of IB, K-12 students will be exposed to academic rigor from the get-go,” he said.

A need for improvement Incline Elementary School and Incline Middle School failed to meet national standards for improvement in certain areas during the 2008-09 academic year. The two schools did not improve in English language arts and math and were classified as schools in need of improvement under Nevada standards. To land on the needs improvement lists — or the watch list — schools must fall short of federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards for two years in a row. The schools' placement on the list partly led to the formation of the Incline School Reflective Task Force, which was created to combat the needs improvement status and other problems such as declining enrollment. The idea for implementation of International Baccalaureate in Incline schools issued from the task force and has since gathered enough momentum that Washoe County School District officials are currently underway in training teachers and conducting preliminary implementation of the program in all three schools.

Local school empowerment

Kathryn Kelly, an Incline parent, said focusing on improving the K-8 program is important in terms of “preparing kids for what is already a great high school.”

Kelly said IB is not an end, but rather a means for giving the Incline campus greater autonomy over the K-12 program.

“IB is a component of empowering the local schools,” she said.

Kelly said IB's Primary Years and Middle Years (ages 3-14) programs are more geared toward providing teachers and administrators with professional development and do not outline specific curriculum elements.

Kelly is not necessarily in favor of IB, but believes a program which enhances the standards to which teachers in the elementary and middles school aspire, is positive.

“We should be enforcing high standards anyway,” she said.