New! " From the Board" Newsletter

" FROM THE BOARD" NEWSLETTER

November, 2018 - Edition 1

A warm greeting to the Escuela Americana community, on our first newsletter edition “From the Board”!

Dear EA Community:

The purpose of this column is to provide the wider EA community with guidance, according to global standards, as to what is the role of the Board of Directors (or Board of Trustees) of a private school. In this first edition, I would like to begin by sharing with you our three main duties as a Board of Directors, which are clearly aligned to the duties of boards of directors of international schools across the globe.

First (and foremost): we are volunteers who guard EA’s Mission, which is: “ To provide our students with tools, experiences, and challenges that instill moral courage, develop their unique skills, and allow them to reach their full potential in a dynamic world.”

Second: we are fiduciaries of the school. A fiduciary is defined as a person or organization that owes to another the duties of good faith and trust. A fiduciary is a person who is entrusted to take care of assets for another beneficiary.

Third: we have the responsibility of hiring the school’s General Director , who is the individual upon which falls the duty and responsibility to execute the school strategy, and uphold the mission, vision, and compliance with local and international rules, regulations, and best practices in all fronts. In all senses, the General Director is the Chief Executive Officer of our school.

By complying with these three duties, we are on track to maintaining our school accredited with global standards. This means the students graduating from Escuela Americana can apply and continue their higher education in the most respected Universities all over the globe.

When we are honored to be elected to the Board, we do not represent the parents, nor or our personal interests. Rather, once we are elected to the Board, we forego all our capacity to act as individual stakeholders of the school, and must act as a fully coherent unit that contributes our diverse and collective wisdom to the school. As Board Members, we adhere to follow the National Association of Independent Schools “best practices” which clearly define our role as strictly strategic in nature. We are expressly prohibited to become involved in specific management, personnel, or curricular issues.

Said in another way: We do not act as a court of review or a court of last resort in any escalation, administrative, disciplinary, dismissal, or termination cases. These are all responsibilities of the General Director. The only employee of Escuela Americana who responds to the Board of Directors is Dr. Polly Parker, our General Director.

The recently elected Board truly appreciates your vote of trust, and in alignment with our intention to engage with the community, we have organized six Parent-Board round tables during the upcoming weeks. We have tried to provide you with a variety of options for you to join us, and the dates are the following:

Monday December 3, 4:30 – 6:00 PM

Thursday December 6, 7:30 – 9:00 AM

Monday December 10, 1:00 – 2:30 PM

Tuesday December 11, 4:30 – 6:00 PM

Tuesday January 15, 4:30 – 6:00 PM

Monday January 21, 1:00 – 2:30 PM

These are perfect opportunities for you to meet Dr. Polly Parker and bring proactive insights, suggestions, and improvements that can contribute to the improvement of our school in a meaningful way. We would highly encourage you to join us.

If you have not yet signed up, please feel free to contact garay.claudia@amschool.edu.sv for further information.

Looking forward to seeing you at our EA,

Carlos Moreno

Escuela Americana Board of Directors

Dear EA Community Members,

Welcome to the newsletter that will include notes from the EA General Director’s Office and the EA Board of Directors!

November is the time of year that we often think about being thankful for our family, friends and communities. During the past four months at Escuela Americana, I have repeatedly felt thankful for the warm welcomes, our community of families that all share a common goal about learning and building character in their sons and daughters, our students who have been generous with one another, and for the process of learning from everyone about the strong traditions and beliefs of this awesome school.

During our EA General Assembly in October, I shared a presentation about what it means to be a “school of the future” and how we might start to reflect upon this in terms of our teaching practices so that our students are prepared for a future that is truly unknown to us. We all understand that the world is changing faster than ever in terms of technology and access to information. At the college level, students are expected to have high critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, empathy and creativity, to think independently and to know “how to think.” I shared that as a school we need to reflect upon the fact that our students unlimited access to information is important to acknowledge as we rethink teaching practices of the past. As a community, we need to determine if it is as important to memorize information that we can access in less than 3 seconds or is it more important to learn, think, and wonder about the content taught in school. The question remains: Should we be teaching at a level of true depth and breadth for understanding and synthesis of information from all content areas in order to allow broader learning and retention rather than teaching for a test or honor roll? Research does show us that even the best students will not retain more that 60% of information if it is not truly understood and applied at a deeper level.

I have asked our teachers and staff to focus on meta-cognition and the importance of not only teaching our students to think about thinking and learning but to help them maintain joy while learning for a lifetime of change and growth. If you were unable to attend this presentation, I would be happy to offer more opportunities for everyone to meet with me and discuss how EA could take our strong history of being a top school in Central America and welcome additional methods to join the schools of the future so that our students are prepared to compete globally.

As we move toward the holiday season, please find time to talk with your sons and daughters of all ages about school, the importance of doing their best, and feeling good about themselves while making an effort to understand others’ perspectives. Ask your sons and daughters if they find joy or passion in school and/or learning and what this means for them. Brain research clearly tells us that students need sleep, active learning, exercise and joy to be the most productive learners who retain information. Our collective job is to help students find a balance of time, school, athletics and activities that will promote a lifetime wellness and growth. We share a common belief with all of our families in the shaping of intellectually curious students who understand how to think, have balance and become proud alums of Escuela Americana.

I continue to look forward to learning more about EA and meeting more of this community as we work together in a partnership to continue the great education that has been present for the past 72 years while integrating additional programs to address students’ needs now and into their futures.

My door is open and I encourage everyone to share their thoughts with me.

Looking forward,

Polly

Principles of Good Practice - Board of Directors

Preamble: The following principles provide common ground for interaction between independent school professionals and their many constituents (parents, students, colleagues at other schools, and the public). The NAIS Principles of Good Practice for member schools define high standards and ethical behavior in key areas of school operations to guide schools in becoming the best education communities they can be, to embed the expectation of professionalism, and to further our sector’s core values of transparency, excellence, and inclusivity. Accordingly, membership in NAIS is contingent upon agreement to abide by the spirit of the PGPs.

Overview: The board is the guardian of the school’s mission. It is the board’s responsibility to ensure that the mission is relevant and vital to the community it serves and to monitor the success of the school in fulfilling its mission.

Principles of Good Practice:

1.The board adopts a clear statement of the school’s mission, vision, and strategic goals and establishes policies and plans consistent with this statement.

2.The board reviews and maintains appropriate bylaws that conform to legal requirements, including duties of loyalty, obedience, and care.

3.The board assures that the school and the board operate in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, minimizing exposure to legal action. The board creates a conflict of interest policy that is reviewed with, and signed by, individual trustees annually.

4.The board accepts accountability for both the financial stability and the financial future of the institution, engaging in strategic financial planning, assuming primary responsibility for the preservation of capital assets and endowments, overseeing operating budgets, and participating actively in fundraising.

5.The board selects, supports, nurtures, evaluates, and sets appropriate compensation for the head of school.

6.The board recognizes that its primary work and focus are long range and strategic.

7.The board undertakes formal strategic planning on a periodic basis, sets annual goals related to the plan, and conducts annual written evaluations for the school, head of school, and the board itself.

8.The board keeps full and accurate records of its meetings, committees, and policies and communicates its decisions widely, while keeping its deliberations confidential.

9.Board composition reflects the strategic expertise, resources, and perspectives (past, present, and future) needed to achieve the mission and strategic objectives of the school.

10.The board works to ensure all its members are actively involved in the work of the board and its committees.

11.As leader of the school community, the board engages proactively with the head of school in cultivating and maintaining good relations with school constituents as well as the broader community and exhibits best practices relevant to equity and justice.

12.The board is committed to a program of professional development that includes annual new trustee orientation, ongoing trustee education and evaluation, and board leadership succession planning.

(Excerpted from NAIS's Trustee Handbook, 10th edition, by Donna Orem and Debra P. Wilson)