LTC 294-2008 CMB Accepted to Receive IB On-Site Level One TrainingRF~~~`~!~~~~~
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OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 294-2008 LETTER TO COMMISSION
To: Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Members of the City Commission
From: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
Date: November 12, 2008
Subject: City of Miami Beach Accepted To Receive IB On-Site Level One Training
The purpose of this Letter to Commission (LTC) is to update the Mayor and
Commissioners on the status of the implementation of the International Baccalaureate
(IB) Program pursuant to the City of Miami Beach Education Compact agreed to on
January 16, 2008.
One of the initiatives of the education compact is to implement the International
Baccalaureate program throughout all Miami Beach feeder schools. The latest action in
this implementation is our City's acceptance by the IBO to receive on-site IB Level One
Instructional Staff training in 2009 (see attached). This new service, delivered through
IB New York, is designed to promote access and excellence. As a result of our
selection, we will be able to fulfill the new requirement to train all elementary instructional
staff within the existing budget where we had only anticipated training one teacher per
grade level based on prior requirements. All of our City schools, elementary, middle,
and high school, will have the opportunity to train the majority of instructional staff
members at a significant cost savings.
The training of instructional staff members will accelerate the process of our City
becoming an IB K-12 community. Our progress to date will ensure a high quality
international education for all youth within our community.
Next steps include meeting with MDCPS personnel to schedule the IB on-site training
workshops in March 2009 for all levels of the program. We have made excellent
progress to date and anticipate healthy discussion opportunities with City schools as we
strive to meet the educational needs of our children.
Should you have any questions, or need additional information, please feel free to
contact me.
JMG/KGB/LDR
F:\cmgr\$ALL\LTC-08\LTC-IB Implementation Status October 27 2008 LTC.doc
:„,a.,. lnter~ational
¢~~ Baccalaureate
27 October 2008
Dr. Leslie Rosenfeld, City of Miami Beach
Dr. Helen Btanch, Miami Dade County Public Schools
clo Dr. Leslie Rosenfeld
1700 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Dear Dr. Rosenfeld and Dr. Blanch:
I am writing to let you know that the City of Miami Beach and the Miami Dade County Public
Schools have been accepted to receive on-site fB Level One district/board/ministry training in
2009. This new service, delivered through the division of Outreach and Vdunteer Services of IB
New York, is designed th promote access and excellence. Your application spoke to both these
goals. We commend your entire community for its commitment to a high quality international
education.
Ms. Maria Hersey, one of our Programme Specialists, wii! be the district's principal contact for the
planning and delivery of the on-site workshops. She w~71 be in touch with you by the end of next
week to begin the process. The first thing she will do is address some questions that we have
based on reading your application_ There are three other things we would like you to keep in
mind:
o We require that there be a person at the district level who coordinates tB programs and
can serve as our principal point of cantaet. In your case, we presume we wil! be working
with both of you. tf, for some reason there is a change, please let Maria know as soon as
possible
o We will do everything we can to acxommodate your requests in regards to the number of
sessions and subjects. However, we reserve the right not to schedule some sessions if
we can"t recruit enough trained workshop leaders.
o We will attempt to schedule the workshops on your preferred dates, but again reserve the
right to change the dates if it enables us to recruit trained leaders. ff that is the case, we
ask that you work with Maria to come up with mutually agreeable dates.
Congratulations on your achievement. We look forward to working closely with you and your
ues in 2009,
~ ~ ~~
Pau( Campbell
Head of Outreach and Volunteer Services
IB New York Tel: +1 (212) 696-4464 International Bacca?aureate
475 Riverside Drive Fax: +1 (212) 889-9242 Baccalaur~at International
Suiie 2A0 Email: ibna@ibo.org Bachillerato Internaciona
Nevv York, NY 10115 Web: www.ibo.org/ibna