Greetings all. This is my final Dispatch for 2011---what a year! We broke ground on a new building, have seen it rise over our campus, we have had our accreditation mid-term visit, welcomed many new students, families and teachers, and we continue to work towards school improvement in all areas. It is definitely time to take a brief break, reflect on our accomplishments, revise our goals, and enjoy some down time with family. I would like to wish all ISD families a pleasant holiday season and break. Our accreditation visit was somewhat overshadowed by last Friday's evacuation drill, about which I wrote last week. The two-person team (Kay Mongardi from the Council of International Schools and Daphne Neal from the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges--though also the Director of the International School of Abidjian) spent three days on our campus last week, reviewing ISD progress and growth in several areas. They examined our curriculum development work, our resources development, Board governance and policy, and growth in student services. They enjoyed their time on campus, met with teachers, students, administrators and Trustees, and will present a written report for us in the new year.
Highlights for them included the IT growth and infrastructure at ISD, curriculum work, and the establishment of the CORE values. It was great for them to see our students perform at the winter concert: internationalism and CORE values both on prominent display. As a result of this visit, our preparation work for it, and their report, we will have new five-year action plans for school improvement that will be shared with the Trustees and the community. I have been very busy with recruiting the past few weeks and I've reviewed many, many resumes as I look for the best teachers out there willing to come to ISD and join our incredible team. What was an light recruiting year has turned into a more 'normal' year, and I seek 14 teachers to fill openings for 2012-13. Happily, I've signed on four folks already; I was very pleased to hire a replacement for Mr. Kumar at Tech Director by hiring Mr. Rick Park from the American International School of Tunis. His wife Thalia will join our HS staff. Work continues in the coming days and weeks as I try to fill positions in Admin, HS and ES. I plan to travel to attend two teacher hiring fairs in February. These annual events have supplied us with great teachers in the past, such as Ms. Carpenter, Mr. Donauer and Ms. Roderick. A quick note on the school calendar: a late change in WAIST dates resulted in a change in the ISD calendar. Please note for your records that Monday, Jan 16 is a holiday and the WAIST softball tournament will happen that day; Monday, Feb 20 is NOT a holiday, though was marked as such on earlier calendars. Thank you, Wayne Rutherford |
Director's Dispatch >