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On 15 September the Board of Trustees had its first Board Meeting of the school year. The main topics covered were (1) presentation of the Financial results 2014-2015 and (2) Outdoor Education.

Financial Results 2014-2015
Vivien Brelsford presented the Financial Results for 2014-2015. Overall the results for the year were satisfactory. Enrollment reached 1970 students at the end of the school-year divided as follows: ES 753, MS 487, and HS 706. Actual income was THB 1,699,370,517 only marginally below budget. At THB 1,633,227,795 expenses were also generally within budget with a few exceptions, including additional consultant costs related to child safeguarding and security assessment. As a result, the net surplus of the year was THB 66,142,722 or 4.4% of Income. The cash reserve increased to THB 887,307,191 equal to 60% of annual operating expenses (excl. depreciation).

With little debt and increasing cash reserves, ISB has out-grown some of the Financial Matrix stipulations established by the Board in 2009, so these metrics will be re-assessed by the Business Committee.

Outdoor Education (Wilderness Campus)
After several progress reports over the past few years, the Leadership Team presented a comprehensive proposal for the Board to decide on an Outdoor Education Program. In line with ISB’s vision of being “a model of excellence in educating students for success in the world community”, the idea behind outdoor education is to provide opportunities for students to develop character traits and learning dispositions that enable them to cope in an uncertain world. The curriculum will aim to teach skills around a progressive program of outdoor activities that will challenge and compel participants to learn how to manage themselves and work collaboratively with others.

The program will mostly benefit upper Elementary, Middle and High School students and will offer age appropriate outdoor education curriculum as well as provide learning opportunities for existing courses (e.g. Geography, Environmental Studies etc.) in an authentic context. While the outdoor education program is will replace some of the current school outings, for the most part, it will be complementary to existing field-trips and service-related activities, such as GCW and others.

Of the various options presented, the Board approved the development of a formal Outdoor Education Curriculum and the go-ahead for pursuing a dedicated environmental education campus owned and operated by ISB. This option has several advantages, including safety of students and quality of offered programs. Furthermore owning our own facility will involve lower annual costs compared to using non-owned sites and outside contractors.

As part of the evaluation process the board considered the potential impact the wilderness campus would have on other viable learning projects. The outdoor education program is expected to benefit most ISB students over multiple years and will fill a large perceived gap in ISB’s delivery of high quality education. Nevertheless the relative small investment and operational costs will not affect any other (potential) initiatives, and will only reduce the school’s cash reserves by an estimated 7%.

So far, several potential sites have been evaluated and the preferred sites are in the vicinity of Kaeng Krachan reservoir because of the ease of access to flat water, the ocean, mountains, and its relative proximity to Bangkok. The details of the site selection and appraisal are now delegated to the Business Committee who will make the final recommendation to the board after a full due diligence process.

The next Board meeting is at 6PM on Tuesday 27 October and is open to all stakeholders.

Nearly 500 BISAC runners this Sunday!

ISB will host the BISAC Cross Country meet.  This is the fastest growing sport in BISAC and numbers are sky rocketing.  Come out Sunday and support our young athletes as they run, run, run.

by: ISB PTA Welcome Wai Coordinators
welcomewai@isb.ac.th

Would you like to meet other parents, especially those living downtown?

Here’s your chance! Come and enjoy a fresh cup of coffee and some light snacks in the charming conservatory style Quince Eatery and Bar on Sukhumvit.

Learn about Transitions from Carmel Keane, 6th Grade Counselor, and watch a demonstration of how to paint on lotus leaves by the famous Himapan Gallery. Please see their website:  https://www.himapan-gallery.com/#!map/c5op

Venue:  Quince Eatery and Bar, Sukhumvit Soi 45, Just behind Casa Pagoda.

6-8 minute walk from Phrom Phong  BTS metro station. For further details please check the Quince website: https://www.quincebangkok.com/index.php?id=90&no_cache=1

All parents are welcome no matter where they live. The event is free for the parents.

RSVPs are requested. Please email welcomewai@isb.ac.th if you plan to attend or if you have any questions.

We hope to see you there.

Inderbir, Sraboni, Khadija and Des

by Kevin Sypolt
ksypolt@gmail.com

Bangkok Baseball Softball Association (BBSA) has organized baseball/softball play for the past 55 years in Bangkok. There are leagues for boys and girls ages 5 yrs – 18 yrs.  Please note registration is open from now until November 6th.  We must register players now so we have time to hold player assessments, form teams and order player uniforms before play begins.  Current fees per player are THB 3,100.  Registration fees will increase to THB 3,600 on November 7th so be sure to register before November 1st.

You can make your payment at the Community Activity Office (CAO) or pay by Thai bank wire transfer.  Cash, credit cards and Thai baht checks are accepted for payment at the CAO office.  The CAO Office is open Monday – Friday, 7:00AM to 11:00AM and 12:00PM to 3:00PM.

Player assessment will be held on Sunday November 8th and Tuesday, November 10th (depending upon the league your child is in) at the ISB fields.  All players are strongly encouraged to attend their assessment sessions to allow the coaches to create fair and balanced teams.   Parents will be contacted about the specific times for their player’s assessment session.

Practices will begin in mid November with Opening Day for baseball/softball on Saturday, Nov 21st.  All games are played on Friday evenings and Saturdays at ISB.  Games will continue every weekend until the league championships the weekend of February 26th/27th.  There will be no games during the winter break at ISB but we will continue play on Saturday, January 9th 2016.

All teams will practice once per week during the season as a weekly practice is important to skills development and to learn the fundamentals of teamwork, etc.  Most practices will take place at the ISB fields on weekday evenings (Monday – Thursday).  We have arranged a downtown Bangkok location on Thursdays for an optional weekly practice at NIST.  Parents will have to pay THB 500 for the season for this practice because NIST charges for field usage.  But all players should register to play even if they cannot commit to attending all weekly practice sessions.

On the registration form you will also have an opportunity to volunteer to be a coach, assistant coach or team parent.  Please consider helpng out with your child’s team in some way.  The kids really love having their parents helping out with their team and you will have a great time.  No previous baseball experience is necessary.

BBSA has purchased a limited number of fielding gloves and batting gloves for players who need them.  These will be sold on our assessment days.

Please go to https://inside.isb.ac.th/cao/2011/08/17/bbsa-baseballsoftball/  to register.  If you have any questions, please contact Kevin Sypolt at ksypolt@gmail.com

Passion Day returns to ISB on December 1, 2015 after a successful inaugural event in 2013. Passion Day is a day of learning where students are given the opportunity to find a new passion or to foster an existing one. Please check for further details in this months Touchstone magazine.

The ISB mission states that students “will be passionate, reflective learners”.  There are many ways to address this; one of which was the development of Passion Day as a special day of learning for ISB students where they get to choose (within reason) what they learn about for that day.  To ensure the continued development of passionate reflective learners during Passion Day a number of aims and principles have been developed:

Aims

• Inspire a passion for learning

• Provide greater choice for students

• Learn beyond traditional disciplines and divisional boundaries

• Develop some life skills

• Assess ISB’s readiness for change and disruption

• Further develop a culture of innovation, collaboration and fun

• For students: Make some connections with new teachers and other students

• For teachers: Make some new connections with different students and other teachers

by Derrick QUINET
derrickq@isb.ac.th

Stay connected and get all your ISB Panthers sports updates via Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Log in and “like” ISB Athletics, follow us @isbpanthers, and find all the fantastic action photos on Flickr, isbpanthers.

The new website is about to go live, so keep your eyes open and watch this space. Go Panthers!