by Marc de Vries
marc.devries@vigilant-techno.
On October 15th the Board of Trustees had its monthly Board Meeting. Below is a summary of the most important discussion points.
WASC Accreditation
Every six years the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) visits ISB as part of its accreditation process. The next accreditation visit will take place in the week of November 3rd. In preparation for this visit, ISB has made a thorough self-evaluation highlighting its strengths and areas for improvement. Under the direction of Jayne Lund (ISB’s WASC Self-Study Coordinator) and the efforts of the various Focus Groups, this 18 month effort resulted in a report that will serve as a guideline for the audit. The WASC self-study report is available for parents online at: https://inside.isb.ac.th/parentportal/wasc-report/ The Board commends the thoroughness of the project and the honest and constructive approach to the self-study that will help ISB continue to improve in the future.
Challenge and Enrichment
One of ISB’s mission points is to inspire students to achieve their academic potential. The new “challenge and enrichment” program is being led by Dr. Selena Gallagher to offer challenge and enrichment to students that excel or have a strong interest in certain areas. To some degree, ISB already provides challenge and enrichment opportunities to students, but this isn’t yet done in a comprehensive and systematic way. The program currently being developed identifies 4 levels of service the school will offer students, ranging from Level 1, where the services are offered to all students, to Level 4 where the services are offered on an individual basis. The program will rely on five essential attributes:
(1) Flexibility – programming is multidimensional, not one formula, curriculum or set program of activities or services;
(2) Inclusivity – programming is appropriate, challenging and developmental and therefore available for anyone;
(3) Responsiveness – programming responds to the positive needs of students;
(4) Proactive – taking initiative for talent development becomes everyone’s business – teachers, parents, community;
(5) Unifying – provides a structure and terminology for effective communication about talent development.
The program is still in its developmental stage and currently feedback is being sought from staff and teachers. The Board supports the challenge and enrichment program, which, together with inclusivity and more “voice and choice” for students, leads to more individualized learning that is part of ISB 2020’s vision.
Update Student Council
Jin Ahn and Benya Kraus presented an overview of Student Council activities. The student body is very active and already successful events such as Games Night and Munch & Music have taken place. The Student Council is looking forward to the Winter Dance themed “Winter in New York” and the senior class is looking to restore the tradition of giving the school a parting gift at graduation. The BOT would like to ask for student involvement in determining the school’s facilities plan by sharing their thoughts on what new facilities students could help learning. In addition the BOT will seek the Student Council’s help in increasing BOT election voter turn-out at the next BOT election.
School Trip Destinations
In the previous BOT Meeting concerns were expressed regarding school trips to countries where students are unable to obtain visas because of their nationality. Specifically there was a concern for Israeli students not being able to attend GCW trips to Indonesia. The BOT and administration looked into the matter and through meetings with the Indonesian Embassy it became clear that there is a procedure for Israeli students to obtain a visa. Among others, the procedure requires sponsorship from a person or entity in the host country, and Jakarta International School has agreed to help us in this regard. The BOT thanks the parents who brought this issue to the Board’s attention as we hope it will ensure that all of our students are able to participate in any of the GCW trips on offer.
Committee on Trustees
The COT, chaired by Joy Davy, reported that it is seeking ways to increase voter turn-out for Board of Trustees elections. Online voting and extending the election period from one day to multi-days are measures currently being evaluated. In addition, one of the COT goals this year is to review BOT and HOS self-evaluation processes.
Strategic Improvement and Learning Committee
The SILC Committee, chaired by Ana Coghlan, will start evaluating the effectiveness of the Learning Indicators. ISB is relatively unique that it has developed Key Performance Indicators that help the school focus on specific areas of learning and drive improvements. The Learning Indicators also provide another tool for the BOT to measure school performance. Having been implemented 3-4 years ago, the SILC would now like to take stock of how effective the Learning Indicators have been and also ensure progress with respect to all mission points is being assessed.
Business Committee
The Business Committee presented the Final Budget 2013-2014 which was approved. Highlights of the budget include a record enrollment of 1940 students. Income is expected to be THB 1,629 million and the surplus budgeted at just under THB 100 million. As usual, the largest expense line-item is salaries and benefits accounting for 75% of cost. Capital expenditure for the school year is budgeted at THB 150 million, with major items like renovations and improvements of the existing older buildings accounting for THB 42 million, technology, including the last phase of rolling-out of the 1-to-1 lap top program accounting for THB 36 million and the installation of the Bill Gerritz Invention Center budgeted at THB 13.5 million. The Final Budget 2013-2014 meets all the Financial Performance Indicators, and continues to show financial improvement for the school.
Head of School Blog
As a final point I would like to recommend reading Dr. Davies’ blog on what makes a good international school. The article captures the underlying ideas behind ISB’s vision and mission and is an excellent read. It can be accessed at:
https://www.isb.ac.th/Head_of_School_s_Blogs/What_Makes_a_Good_International_School_/default.aspx
Next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting will be held on Tuesday November 19th 2013 in MPB3 at 6:00pm – 09:00pm. The meeting is open for all ISA members to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Marc de Vries
BOT Chair