District talks paying for I.B. exams

Though paying for IB exams would be a small portion of the district’s $107.2 million budget, board members were still concerned about the expense.

Alex Costello/Herald

The Rockville Centre Board of Education continued budget talks last week, this time focusing on some of the larger expenses in the budget, as well as discussing how much the district should cover student fees for International Baccalaureate exams.

The meeting on March 11 was the third in a series analyzing the district’s proposed 2015-16 spending plan. The proposed budget is just over than $4.1 million more than the current spending plan, bringing the grand total to $107.2 million, or a 3.99 percent increase.

One of the items that was discussed by the board at length was an increase of $47,049. That money would be used to pay for International Baccalaureate (IB) tests for 11th and 12th graders at South Side High School.

The funding would allow the district to cover one exam for each student in the two grades. Right now, the district pays the IB enrollment fee for each student and $5 per exam. The students, and their families, have to pay the remaining cost of each exam, which is $105.

“We think this is a good way to ensure kids leave this building with at least two IB tests under their belts,” said SSHS Principal Dr. Carol Burris.

Burris said that, on occasion, families have trouble paying the IB fees. In those cases, the school can’t do much but offer a payment plan.

A few years ago, the school implemented IB For All, in which all 11th graders, regardless of their standing, would take IB English. This year, the district expanded that to history as well. Many students also take other IB courses as well, such as physics, math, chemistry, Spanish and more. Students could take upwards of five exams in a year, costing hundreds of dollars in exam fees.

Though the school mandates that all kids take IB English, it’s the one class where the exam is optional. IB English is a two-year course. In their senior year, students can decide if they want to take the IB exam. If not, they don’t get the IB credit and are instead graded as regents students.

“I think that we see, as more students are taking IB exams and they’re taking more of them, that the cost is becoming quite expensive,” Burris said. “So we tried to come up with a way that would help reduce the cost for families, and to do it in what we thought was the most equitable way possible.”