NOTE: Natomas Unified adopted a Cycle of Continuous Learning and Improvement earlier this year. As part of this cycle, Trustees are observing programs and actions they have adopted for students in the past few years. This is an opportunity for Trustees to see the strong work of our staff and the fast-growing opportunities for our students.
They’re Inderkum High School sophomores on track to make history in two years as the school’s first students to graduate with a prestigious International Baccalaureate diploma. Natomas Unified has dedicated hundreds of hours in planning and training to create a top-notch program that was honored as an IB World School this year, ensuring recognition worldwide.
Sitting in Algebra II class, studying things like frequency tables and probability distribution, these Inderkum 10th-graders are just weeks away from completing the school’s two-year Scholars program – an academic honors program – and advancing to IB’s Diploma Programme. Many of the Scholar program's participating sophomores also take physics, Spanish II, or trigonometry/pre-calculus.
Trustee Scott Dosick, a strong IB supporter, has come to see for himself the classrooms, students and instruction. Both the Scholars and next year’s Diploma Programme are companions to candidate Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes for elementary and middle school students, respectively, ensuring that students can climb the IB ladder from early grades until high school graduation.
IB’s final two years, its Diploma Programme, requires students to complete intensive coursework aimed at creating disciplined, responsible and well-rounded graduates through advanced study in languages, mathematics, history, art, social and natural sciences, and by conducting research and participating in projects involving creativity, action and service.
The Scholars program, too, provides plenty of academic rigor – in math, English, science and world language -- to bolster college and career readiness. Natomas Unified, with one of the nation’s most diverse student bodies, emphasizes language instruction District-wide. Trustees have approved the placement of world languages in all middle schools and, in the future, many 10th-graders will be fully invested in Spanish 3 or Mandarin 3.
Before leaving Inderkum, Trustee Dosick also visited the band classroom of Shawn Hines. The Inderkum band earned a Top-20 statewide ranking in competitions this year and Hines’ Winter Color Guard won its second consecutive Northern California Championship. Hines and instructor Jeff Galindo of Natomas Middle School’s music program -- a performing arts jewel whose students feed into both Inderkum and Natomas high schools – helped the District develop a three-year music action plan recently approved by Trustees.
Boosting Natomas Unified's music program will target secondary schools first. The instructional program will be expanded at Inderkum, Natomas High, Natomas Middle, and at Natomas Gateways, the new middle school opening this summer. Next year’s budget will include funds for instrument purchase, replacement and repair. Elementary schools will have music specialists in 2015-16.
