Message from the Head of School – May 21, 2021
A Year in Review
I would like to thank those community members who attended the Year in Review presentation yesterday. Many thanks go to those who contributed to the presentation, providing the data about our faculty and staff, program and academic results. We have had another successful year at BIS. Please find the presentation here and the recording (⅔ of it) here. (passcode – p5v7iW#c)
We employed the chat function of Zoom to take questions. The Board and I have provided answers to the questions here:
Question: What is the projected enrollment for Q1 of SY21-22?
Answer: The budget for next year is built on 190 fee-paying students. We are projecting to be over that number in August.
Question: The teachers and staff took pay cuts this year and next. The board advised they would pay a % of school fees for SY20-21. What was that percentage?
Answer: Members of the Board of Directors are paying 20% of tuition this year. In the future, the board of directors’ contribution towards tuition will reflect the reduction in staff salaries.
Question: There has been no news about the new campus (understandable with Covid) but the lease renewal deadlines are not so far away now and the new campus seems completely unrealistic so now would be a great time to negotiate lease renewals if possible. Thoughts?
Answer: Covid has certainly not helped in our ability to move forward with the new campus. Negotiating lease extensions of the current campus will be considered by the board at an appropriate time depending on the progress made towards the new campus.
Question: Will you show us the result of the parent’s survey?
Answer: I’d be happy to show you the results of the parent survey. Please make an appointment with me and I will walk you through the results. For transparency and building common understandings, I did invite parents to analyze the results with me. Three parents helped me with this task: Sandrin Prodanu, Sharon Schenkel and Akanksha Jaiswal. Thank you to those three parents for their time and energy for BIS.
Question: Are those 203 paying students?
Answer: Total student number is 203.
Question: How many students do we need to have to plan to move to the new campus?
Answer: Moving to the new campus will not be dependent on the number of students but on the financing that is available. In the master plan of the new campus, we will maximize the land utilization to accommodate all supporting facilities and a maximum number of students to allow us to continue delivering an all-around, high-quality education.
Question: If we move in 2028, does it mean that you are going to invest less in the current campus? Is it fair to our students?
Answer: One of our current strategic goals is to ensure we continue to support the current facilities. The board is committed to ensuring our existing facilities are in line with our desire to provide a high-quality education and learning experience. The operations team has and continues to monitor what is necessary to ensure we are able to live up to our mission and vision in this respect and any needs will be put either into an operational or CAPEX budget to support our existing campus.
Question: There has also been nothing on how we can fund building a new campus (with a surplus of 1 bio this year seems completely unfeasible). Is there a design and budget for building a new campus or funding plans?
Answer: As soon as the school is operating at or close to pre-Covid levels, we will commence the process of hiring consultants to start the master planning and architectural design of the new campus. With the designs in place, the process of budgeting and funding will commence.
Question: Mr. Wyncoll and the faculty team have done an amazing job this year. Hope we can have him for a long time!!
Answer: The Faculty and Staff have been remarkable, resilient, supportive of each student, and creative – agreed! Thank you for your wonderful support of Bali Island School.
Graduation Ceremony
Next Friday, May 28, 2021, Bali Island School’s Graduating Class of 2021 will become BIS Alumni. Two events cap off the Graduation experience for our Seniors. On Monday, they will participate in the Final Roll Call and Final Assembly in which they have the opportunity to thank those individuals who helped them get to this amazing point in their young lives. On Friday, they will walk across the stage and receive their well-earned High School Diploma. Please help me to congratulate the Senior Class of 2021!
The ceremony will be streamed and I encourage all community members to witness the Graduation Ceremony. 5:15 p.m.