Big Park Community School is moving toward becoming an International Baccalaureate school, according to Debbie Jones, who takes over as BPCS principal next school year.

IB is a nonprofit educational foundation offering four programs that “develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world,” according to its website.

Saying that “our community is ready to rebuild and rebrand,” Jones told the Sedona Oak-Creek School District Governing Board that the BPCS faculty and site council voted unanimously to explore IB’s Primary Years program.

She presented the proposal to the school board at its May 3 meeting. Board members did not take action because it was informational purposes only.

Meanwhile, VOC residents have been moving forward on efforts to raise money to get the IB initiative going.

Residents had pledged to support BPCS when school district officials were considering whether to close the school during a series of public workshops and hearings over the past several months. The governing board was looking at a variety of restructuring options to deal with financial pressure due to reduced funding prompted by dwindling enrollment.

After the board voted in March to preserve the school, residents followed up on their vow.

Jones told the board that the community has pledged more than $16,000 toward training teachers in the IB curriculum.

It costs $600 to train one teacher, according to Jones, who said there is a $4,000 first-year application fee and an annual membership cost of $8,500.

In an April 21 letter, Don and Jan Groves asked Big Park and Village of Oak Creek residents to “‘adopt a teacher’ by donating $600.”

Any funds in excess of what is needed for training would go to the membership fund, according to the letter.

“The community overwhelmingly responded when the board threatened closing Big Park,” the letter read. “Now, we can show our support by adopting a teacher so they can participate in teacher training workshops so they are qualified to implement the PYP.”

The Groves are retired educators who live in the community. They each have extensive experience with IB programs, according to Don Groves.

“It has been gratifying to see how these programs have transformed schools into dynamic learning communities where all students achieve at standards higher than they expected no matter their academic ability or language proficiency,” he said.

The letter was attached  to an email containing the Big Park Regional Coordinating Council’s May 12 meeting.

BPRCC President Amadeus Larew called it “a significant development in the continued metamorphosis of a great school becoming even better.”

At the council meeting, a representative of the Vision Alliance announced that the community group is offering a “challenge” grant of $4,250.

David Gill asked  BPRCC members to take the challenge to their constituents — VOC homeowners associations — in an effort to raise matching funds.

The total of $8,500 would pay the school’s membership fee for its first year in IB, which Gill said would be 2018.

“Our expectation is that when the school increases enrollment, the school district will be able to pay the annual fees itself,” Gill said, referring to the increase in funding that would come with more students at BPCS.

At the SOCSD board meeting, Jones had said that she consulted with officials from Mountain View Preparatory school, which is an IB program.

The school, which had been on the brink of elimination by Cottonwood Oak Creek School District, became a success story after adopting the IB curriculum, she said. Its enrollment increased from 172 to 440 in 2015, and has a waiting list through 2012-20.

“MVP needs some place to refer parents to,” Jones told the board.

The challenge grant would go into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit via a fund administered through the school district, Gill said.

“I’m overwhelmed by the amount of community support,” Jones told BPRCC council members.

Gill said the grant would be the first project to implement the community’s vision plan that was adopted in 2014. He said the plan includes education as a goal.

Also at the meeting, the council appointed Carolyn Fisher to be its representative on the Big Park Community School site council.