WAXHAW -- Marvin Ridge High School is the first Union County school to pilot the International Baccalaureate program. Forty-three students are enrolled.

Should the IB program be available to all Union County students?

“Absolutely,” said Union County Public Schools Superintendent Ed Davis.

School officials will consider opening the program to others at the end of the school year, he said, whether through transferring participants to Marvin Ridge or adding the program in other schools.

Davis hopes to make the IB program available on the eastern side of the county.

It is “open to schools to initiate it at that level,” he said.

The IB program is a six-course curriculum to prepare students for a global market.

Marvin Ridge principal Bill Cook approached UCPS about the program when he was named principal in 2006. As an advocate for Advanced Placement courses during his time at other county high schools, he said, AP classes were a natural “springboard” for IB.

IB, Cook said, “meets the needs of a certain group of children that we haven’t been able to meet in the past.”

Potential IB students are evaluated on their GPAs, transcripts, interviews and teacher recommendations.

Out of 84 students who applied at Marvin Ridge, 50 made the cut. Seven of those dropped out of it, assistant principal Marie Brickman said, either because they couldn’t fit band into the IB schedule, decided AP classes were a better fit or weren’t thrilled with the amount of required community service or the extended essay.

Students in the program represent a variety of ethnic groups, she said, including black, white and Indian. White students make up 85.6 percent of the school’s population; 7 percent are black, 3.2 percent are Hispanic and 4.2 percent are other.

Brickman said IB isn’t a cheap program for the school system, but serves the students well. There is no fee for students to participate in the program. Mary Lombard, whose daughter, Katie, is in the program, said although parents at Marvin Ridge pay no fees, the same is not true of IB programs in some other systems.

The school has 14 IB teachers, but only 12 are teaching this semester. Many of them also teach non-IB classes.

“We have not hired any teachers at all because of IB,” Brickman said. “The teachers who were trained were on staff anyway.”

The cost for training, including travel and a hotel, can be between $100 and several hundred dollars, Brickman said. Some training sites include Atlanta, Texas and Canada. Brickman said the cost is “significant,” but compared it to costs of AP training.

Cook, a guidance counselor and herself might also receive training, she said, but that training is not necessary each year.

Cook said initial training is between $2,000 and $2,500 for a teacher with no IB experience. Travel and hotels are the big ticket items, he said. Davis estimates total training costs for all teachers came to about $100,000.

Teachers get a “refresher” course every three to five years, Cook added.

Davis said funding “wasn’t an issue” when Marvin Ridge approached UCPS about IB a few years ago, but with the current budget crisis, “we don’t quite have the same capacity to look at it.” Still, he said, he is open to other schools having the program.

Just as Forest Hills piloted the block schedule in the mid-90s and Piedmont was the first city school to have a ROTC program, Davis said, “we’re open to any new ideas that schools want to pilot.”

Once Marvin Ridge approached Davis, IB consultants visited with school officials to interview teachers and administrators. After that, it took about a year of planning, Davis said, to train teachers and gather resources for the program.

“It’s not something you say you want and you just get it,” Forest Hills principal Wanda Little said. Little would like to see IB on the eastern side of the county, but “I don’t think it needs to be at every school in the county. ... It is an expensive program to be had.”

Still, Little said, if IB is introduced at her own school or one nearby, “there are no drawbacks.” Until then, Marvin Ridge is too far for most Forest Hills students to transfer.

Porter Ridge principal Sam Basden is a former assistant principal of Independence High School, which also had IB. “It’s an outstanding program,” he said, adding that former IB students still keep in touch with him and others who were in the program.

It is not for “the faint of heart,” he said, calling the program “a challenge.”

Basden would like to improve his school’s test scores before considering IB for Porter Ridge. “It’s on a Christmas list, but it’s not on a Christmas 2009 list.”

Monroe High principal Doreen Dotalo said she needs more information about the program before deciding whether it would work well at her school.