Message from the BIS Board – December 18, 2020

Dear BIS Community,

Covid-19 has been an incredible test of how sound our systems are, how well prepared we are to take on new challenges, and to think outside of our normal practice. I believe we are all in the same spot as individuals, as families, and as institutions.

Our mission, vision, and core values provide a backdrop for the board’s decision-making process to ensure we remain on target, no matter what the circumstances. Through the difficulties brought about by Covid-19, we have kept the guiding statements as our focus in determining how to navigate through the current challenges.

Vision
To be the school of choice for internationally-minded families and a leader of IB World Schools in Indonesia.

Mission
Engaging and empowering globally-minded, confident learners to reach their utmost potential in an active, creative, and respectful learning community.

Confirmation of our success has come through our accreditation visits but also through the continued support and strength of our community.

A key achievement over these past several months has been to ensure the school has been able to operate as normally as possible. This has been possible by the board and the operations team being flexible and making key decisions regarding how to address the various challenges being faced. The students and parents have been a tremendous help in this process by not only supporting the decisions being made but also by adjusting to different scheduling and parents supporting their child’s learning. Everyone understands that this is not the ideal situation, but we have all contributed to making the best of the circumstances, for that we are grateful.

Through the board’s annual reflection of the previous school year, considering the unique circumstances that this pandemic has placed us in and looking to where we want to be in the future, the board created three goals that we have already started working on for this school year.

Our first goal is to create a means for students to study with us while their families are not on-island. Initially, this will be in the form of a homestay with expectations to expand and create more permanent boarding facilities in the future as per our strategic plan. We have already made some progress on this and you can expect to hear more about this through Mr. Wyncoll.

One key bit of learning that we have seen through this pandemic is how people and organizations stay connected and how those connections benefit each other. Our second goal is to improve our existing relations and create new relationships with organizations within our immediate and larger community. We already have several relationships with different organizations, but we feel they can be further improved and we know there are other organizations with whom we can have mutually beneficial relationships. The board would like to ensure long-term relationships are created and maintained knowing this will enrich the experience of our internal community (BIS faculty, staff, students, and parents).

BIS is blessed with excellent facilities and we have maintained these to ensure they are available to our community. Our third goal is to make more effective use of these facilities. While keeping the needs of our immediate community as the primary focus, we also wish to open up some of our facilities to outside individuals and organizations. This access may be provided as a charity or for a fee with the income being used to help maintain or further improve the facilities. By further opening up our facilities, we will also gain more relationships with other organizations and individuals that will further grow our community.

Wishing you a safe and enjoyable winter break.

Regards,

Kib
Chairman
Yayasan Bali International School