Dear ISB Parent,
The ISA Board of Trustees held its eighth monthly meeting Tuesday, March 13, 2012. I would like to summarize the results of our Board meeting as follows:
1. ATHLETICS UPDATE
Mr. Vaughan provided an update of Panther Athletics 2011-2012. Mr. Vaughan provided background on the program and emphasized that the athletics program spans across all grades from kindergarten to grade 12. ISB has 80 teams with over 100 coaching positions. The website (inside.isb.ac.th/athletics) was recently updated to increase communication with the community. The website is low maintenance, simple to use, and dynamic.
2. BUSINESS COMMITTEE REPORT
Mr. Sypolt provided an update of the 5 March 2012 business committee meeting.
Facilities Projects
Construction on the new swimming pool, gym and tennis facility is proceeding smoothly and on schedule for a January 2013 completion. The question of how participants will access these facilities was discussed and it was decided that usage patterns will be reviewed and walkways will be designed accordingly. Construction of the new Middle/High School Library and the Invention Center will be priorities and construction will likely start in June 2012 to be completed in late September or early October 2012. Consequently, the MS/HS library will be closed until the project is completed and the MPB rooms will serve as the temporary library.
Financial Matrix
The committee agreed that the financial matrix should be reviewed.
PSA 2550
Currently this issue is dormant and there is nothing ISB can do until the Finance Ministry and the Education Ministry can agree on the interpretation of the law.
3. COMMITTEE ON TRUSTEES REPORT
Ms. Davy provided an overview of the 5 March 2012 COT meeting.
Upcoming BOT 2012 Election Timeline
Ms. Davy provided a copy of the election timeline and stated that the community will be informed of the announcement of elections and nomination dates on Thursday, 15 March 2012.
Board Survey Results
The Board recently completed a survey among its members to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.
Issues to be explored further are:
· Prioritize board training
· Formulate succession plan to ensure institutional knowledge
· Outline recruitment strategies
· Improve stakeholder representation
·
The COT would like to use the results from this survey as discussion points during the 1 June 2012 BOT retreat.
School-Parent Communication
Two weeks ago, a project looking at how to increase the effectiveness of the school-parent communication was undertaken with the assistance of Mr. David Playfoot from Fieldwork. Three parent focus groups were held as well as a number of individual parent interviews.
Issues identified include difficulties using the Parent Portal (of note: a new Parent Portal will be launched on 12 April 2012 with ongoing review), response procedures related to student learning, consistency in faculty and administration responding to learning issues, and inadequate new parent orientation. Further work on this project will be reported at the April meeting including a response plan.
4. STRATEGIC IMPROVEMENT AND LEARNING COMMITTEE REPORT
Mr. Ma provided an update of the recent SILC meeting that focused on reviewing the Thai Admissions Process. Trustees were invited to discuss the current process, especially its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement, and threats. Mr. Ma reviewed the general summary points including whether or not admission criteria are clear for Thai applicants to ISB
5. LEARNING SCORECARD RESULTS
Dr. Gerritz showed the 2011 ISA Results. Of particular concern was ISB’s grade 3 Writing A and Writing B lower than acceptable mean scores. Dr. Gerritz outlined seven action steps taken to improve writing skills as there has been concern about writing quality over the past several years when reviewing ISA and IB English data. He emphasized that additional measures are being considered. Of special importance is finding a more reliable, accurate external writing assessment that parallels the precision of our MAP testing for reading and math.
6. COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
Students and parents in attendance raised concerns that high school students do not feel they have sufficient voice with administration. There is also a perception that proper processes were not followed in the recent resignation of a teacher. The BOT discussed the process of this resignation in more detail in its Executive Meeting. Furthermore, the students stated that they did not know that BOT meetings were open to students and that meeting dates and times were not communicated to them. Suggestions were made to (1) involve students in survey design, (2) report results back to the students, and (3) consider including a student representative as an ex-officio member of the board. Dr. Gerritz emphasized that it’s vital to being a good school for high school students to genuinely feel they have a voice and are consulted regarding important decisions. He said that he, Dr. Davies and the high school administration are committed to making this happen.
Sincerely,
By Marc De Vries
Contact Email: marc@vries.net