by Marc de Vries
BOT Chair
marc@vries.net
On February 19th the Board of Trustees had its Board Meeting. During this meeting we discussed a number of agenda items and approved the Preliminary budget for the school year 2013-2014. The main agenda item was the Private School Act 2550. PSA 2550 is a law that will have an impact on ISB’s ownership and governance structure.
As you know, ISB’s legal entity is the International School Association (ISA). This is a non-profit association of which all parents are members. The members elect 12 Board of Trustees consisting solely of parents and the Board may appoint an additional 3 members. ISA is the organization running the school (receiving tuition fees, hiring teachers etc.) Assets such as land and buildings and teacher housing are in different entities, and directly or indirectly under control of the Board.
The purpose of the Private Schools Act B.E. 2550 (as amended 2554) is to provide an improved regulatory framework for the growing number of private schools in Thailand. The Act supersedes the Private Schools Act 2525. The law was passed in 2011, but an exemption of 2 years was given to allow schools time to comply. A number of articles in the law were incompatible with ISB’s (and some other schools) history, purpose and good functioning. Through our lawyers and a successful lobby of the International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT) a number of amendments were made. Nevertheless, ISB may still need to make changes to its governance structure. Over the past two years preparations have already been made to comply with the requirements. Final adjustments are now being made to the proposed structure.
The main issues under review are:
(i) ISB needs to submit a school charter. It will then be considered a new juristic entity recognized as a “Formal School”, and ISA will remain as the “license holder”. ISA is required to transfer its assets (except land) to ISB.
(ii) ISB will need to have an Executive Board that consists of, at a minimum, a Thai representative as the license holder, the Thai Director, the Thai Manager (if not the same person as the Director), a representative of students’ parents, and a representative of teachers and qualified person(s).
(iii) There could be some financial implications as a Royal Decree on how the Revenue Department will treat tax matters is not yet issued.
The law allows leeway in how the School Charter is drafted, and the eventual structure is being worked so that, as much as possible, the impact on ISA’s current governance model is minimized.
Once finalized, the changes will be communicated to all ISA members and brought to a vote at the AGM on May 21st. This would enable us to comply before the extension expires on June 9th 2013.
On a final note, I would like to thank our Headmistress Usa Somboon for her tireless efforts in working on and shaping PSA 2550 for the past five years, both in her role at ISB, as well as in her position as President of ISAT. I would also like to thank Al Chandler who has been instrumental in ISB’s efforts to minimize the impact of the law on ISB’s governance structure, and championing the rights of the ISA members.
Next BOT Meeting
The next BOT meeting will be held at 6PM on Tuesday 19 March at MPB. The meeting is open for all community members to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Marc de Vries
BOT Chair