Local school first to earn IB status

DOVER - The Dover School has received official authorization to be an International Baccalaureate school. Principal Matt Martyn discussed the authorization with the Dover School Board at the board’s meeting on Monday.
“This is the first public school authorization in Vermont,” said Martyn. “It is historic. It is also the only elementary program in the state, public or independent, right now. That will change, but this really is historic.” 
IB is an accreditation with an educational philosophy and approach rooted in inquiry-based learning and global thinking. According to the IB organization’s website, “In order to offer one or more International Baccalaureate (IB) programs of education, schools must complete an authorization process. Once they have been authorized, they are known as IB World Schools.”
Becoming an official IB school has been nearly a decade in the making for the Dover School. IB was originally brought to the board by former principal and current Windham Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Bill Anton. Though Anton was not at Monday’s meeting, in an interview on Tuesday, he said he was proud to have been a part of the process. 
“It’s a real accomplishment for the community, the teachers, the board, and the principal,” said Anton. “It’s going to create just a culture of world class education for the foreseeable future. That’s fantastic for our students and it’s fantastic for the community.”
Anton said the idea for pursuing becoming an International Baccalaureate school was a product of the rollout of Common Core standards in 2011.
“As we were deciding as a group how we were going to approach a whole new set of standards for elementary school, the teachers and the board asked me to research what would be a good path going forward,” said Anton. “They were interested in not doing just a review of the Common Core and matching it, but also what could challenge us as an education community. What kinds of things would we like to raise the bar on.”
Anton said in that research, he discovered IB and saw that it was addressing Common Core principles “in an international setting that approached critical thinking from an inquiry-based perspective, and that really spoke to us. So then we spent 18 months explaining what IB was — we did community nights, we did surveys, we talked at Town Meeting.” Through that process, said Anton, 90% of the teachers wanted to “go through the rigorous process, 78% of parents supported it, and the board was unanimous in going down the path that culminated last week.”
That path toward authorization, said Anton, took four years. Martyn said he sees the authorization not as an end of a process, but as a beginning of a new chapter. “The teachers are excited, I’m excited,” said Martyn. “It’s a very exciting time.” 
Vice chair Laura Sibilia said she was proud of the Dover community for embracing IB when the board brought it to them at Town Meeting years ago. “Our community saw fit to invest when it was clear to them that it made sense for the students,” said Sibilia. “And this was a long haul.” 
Dover School Board Chair Rich Werner commended Martyn for his work in the achievement. “It’s very difficult to come in in the middle of something being worked on and pushed forward, especially a big project like this, with it having not been your vision or something you started or recommended,” said Werner. “For you to continue with it and get us to where we are today, you get double kudos.” 
The board encouraged Martyn to begin thinking about how the school’s official status as an “IB World School” could be marketed to encourage parents to tuition their children to the school. 
“September is too late to get people who maybe would like to tuition their kids here from other towns,” said Werner, suggesting that a public relations plan of action should be formulated as soon as possible. Sibilia suggested putting together a promotion and celebration committee comprising business owners, parents, and community members. 
“It’s a big deal,” said Sibilia. 
In addition to attracting tuition students from other towns, Anton suggested that the IB authorization may even be a point of inspiration for those who are considering a move to Vermont from other areas. 
“I expect that it will be a talking point of people who are considering moving to our area,” said Anton. “One thing we have to our advantage is we get 25,000 people coming here every winter. People who are even partially considering living in Vermont full time can realize that you can have a world class education, with Vermont values, in our little world.”

The Deerfield Valley News

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Wilmington, VT 05363

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