Cooper Middle School students will face a much more rigorous program next school year.

The Fresno Unified School Board approved moving the International Baccalaureate program at Wawona IB World School to Cooper during its Wednesday night meeting.

The decision drew fire from some trustees, who said the board had excluded the public from a dramatic change that could affect hundreds of central Fresno students.

The board's decision moves the IB program, an academically demanding college-prep program, to Cooper starting in the fall. During the 2012-13 school year, the program will include only the sixth and seventh grades, and eighth-graders at Wawona will be able to complete the program at their school.

Trustees Michelle Asadoorian and Larry Moore cast the only no votes -- not because they opposed moving the IB program, they said, but because the decision was made behind the public's back. They said Superintendent Michael Hanson and other board members had circumvented the public process and excluded parents and teachers from the decision.

"I don't know if the Cooper parents have any idea of what is happening," Asadoorian said.

Some audience members and trustees said they suspected the board was trying to sneak the program change through the meeting by burying it on the consent agenda. The consent agenda requires a single vote of approval to pass all of the items unless board members pull items out for discussion.

Making Cooper into a school-wide IB program will exclude students in the neighborhood and force them to travel across town to another school, Asadoorian said. The IB program is rigorous, and may have entrance requirements.

"What we've done for the last 38 years ... neglecting southwest Fresno students," she said, alluding to the lack of school options in that area of town. "That is the exact action that we would be doing for the kids in the Cooper neighborhood."

Asadoorian tried to delay the decision until the board had more information on how students would be affected but was unable to get support from the board majority.

Trustee Janet Ryan said the board had to act quickly to get the IB program in place by the fall.

"Time is of the essence," Ryan said. "There are all sorts of things that have to be filled out in order to have this ready for the next school year."

Moving the program to Cooper will allow the district to establish a seamless IB program that spans all grade levels, Hanson said. IB students from Dailey Elementary would go to Cooper and on to Fresno High.

Changes in attendance boundaries prompted the change. The district's master plan, which was drafted in 2009, calls for redirecting Wawona students to Bullard High. Students from Wawona now go to Fresno High.

The board has not approved the attendance- boundary changes for Wawona -- although staff said the board will likely vote on it in coming months.

The change was set in motion in December, when the board voted to spend about $650,000 on the middle school IB program.

Asadoorian and Moore said Wednesday that they believed the December vote was to allocate funds for IB -- not to strip the program from Wawona. Staff, however, told the board the money was specifically for moving the program.

Hanson said he had visited both schools and had discussed the proposal with staff as early as November -- before the money was even allocated.

Trustee Carol Mills, whose district includes Cooper, said the board, teachers and parents have had information about the program change for weeks. Mills said she has asked the district to begin organizing community meetings to discuss the change in-depth with parents and students.

Staff is expected to return to the board in 30 days with details about Cooper's IB program and its effect on the neighborhood.