Like many parents, when it's time to elect a new Board member, I try to choose people that I believe will serve in the school's best interest - education being the number one priority! I also thought it's very democratic of ISK to allow parents to elect members to sit on the Board to represent the parent's interests. However, when I started reading into the ISK Policy Manual and did a little investigation, I found something very unsettling.
For those who are unfamiliar with the School Board structure, here it is in a nut shell:
- There are 9 voting members on the Board
- One (1) Chair person from U.S. Consulate
- One (1) other U.S. Consulate representative
- Two (2) appointed members - nominated by a simple majority of the sitting Board members
- Five (5) elected members
- Board members will be appointed or elected for 3-year terms.
- Board decisions are made by majority vote (ie. 5 votes on a full sitting Board)
Now, here's the interesting part...drum roll...
According to the Policy Manual:
"If a vacancy among elected positions occurs during the school year, the Board may nominate and appoint by majority vote a new member to serve until the next election is held, or longer, until the end of the term of the vacating member, at the discretion of the Board."
Basically, this means that despite giving parents the power to elect five (5) members, if an elected member leaves their position (say) after 6 months, then the Board has the power to appoint who they want to replace that person for the remaining 2.5 years.
By now, my curious mind started to wonder again. Why would the Board appoint someone for the remainder of the term instead of calling for a re-election at the next school year? The plot thickens!
The ISK website unfortunately, doesn't provide any information on how each Board member got on the Board (I'm not surprised). But here's what I managed to dig out:
- Ellen Germain (Chair person from U.S. Consulate)
- Charity Boyette (U.S. Consulate representative)
- Barbara Myrczek (Elected in 2011)
- Waclaw Sierek (Elected in 2012)
- Magdalena Figas (Elected in 2013)
- Edwin Bennaars (Appointed in 2012 to replace Erik van der Steen???)
- Allen Haberberg (Appointed in 2013)
- Kara McDonald (Appointed in 2013 to replace Alex Dudhia for 2 years)
- Jörg von Weiler (Appointed???)
Please feel free to leave a comment and correct anything that's inaccurate.
I'd really like someone to correct me because if I'm right, we now have a situation where there are only 3 elected Board members instead of 5. This is not only unjust, but unethical because parents' rights to elect are taken away when existing Board members are allowed to appoint another person for replacement.
Thinking about this further, it's entirely possible that one day, the School Board will consist of only appointed Board members who can steer the school in a direction that isn't in the best interest for our children's education or well-being.
Now, I'm not suggesting that the existing Board members are doing anything that would go against the interests of parents - after all, some of them also have children attending ISK. However, I'm really struggling to trust or accept a school policy that supposedly gave parents the power to elect 5 Board members, but we ended up with only 3 elected members.
I would like to see ISK's Governance Committee revise the policy immediately to ensure that appointed replacements stay on the Board only until the next election. This will give parents an opportunity to re-elect who we want on the Board to ensure that they represent the parent's interest.
What do you think?
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4 comments:
So this is a real topic. How do we go from here to obtaining a reaction from the school or from the board?
Comment # 6
How the Board of Directors is Chosen
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ISK has legal statutes and a policy manual that clearly lays out the way in which the Board is chosen/elected. It is rather common in non-profit organizations that when a Board member leaves, the replacement is appointed to the end of the term – that is also how it works in most Western democracies, including the USA and many EU nations. It is neither unjust nor unethical.
Moreover, ISK is a private school. It was created 20 years ago, has a legal statute that is reviewed often, and amended as well. Lucy, we would suggest that you consider attending a Board meeting if you have strong arguments to change the statutes.
There’s another issue here that perhaps isn’t so obvious to all parents. ISK has a lot of ex-pat families that come in for 2-3 years and then move on. Some of the appointments that occurred due to replacements happened because a parent was re-located mid-term. That sometimes results in an unstable Board with a lot of rotation.
The international accreditation bodies have specifically pointed out that the most effective Boards of international schools have some continuity among its members. The provisions that allow the sitting Chairman and Board to appoint replacements have worked to improve the continuity, without – in our humble opinion – any sacrifice in quality. Quite the contrary, several of the appointed Board members are the very backbone of the Board.
John & Kasia, I don't agree with your comment that just because it's common practice that it is ethical or right. Do you really believe that everything that is common practice is the right thing to do?
I also don't agree that we need to appoint a replacement to the end of the term in order to have a continuity among board members. You can appoint someone until the next election and allow parents to vote for a new member. The voting results clearly shows that parents want the elected board positions to be re-elected, not appointed.
Thank you for the suggestion to attend a Board meeting but I'm not very optimistic that an individual such as myself can convince a Board that they should change. I can't even get my children's teachers to mark their school work so that my children can learn from their mistakes. And in case you're wondering if I've spoken to the Director, yes I have, and also to the Head of Elementary. However, I will be putting my suggestion in writing to the Board.
The reasoning of comment #6 is just not logical and as an ISK parent I am quite astonished, that the schools "sells" us appointed positions in the board as a democratic procedure...
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