End of First Semester 2010

The holidays are starting at the end of this week so here is an update by one parent who has tried to get involved to improve the school for many years but has now made the decision to take my children elsewhere. As they say "actions speak louder than words."

Previously I was able to justify keeping my children at the school by rationalizing that even though the management was abysmal, the teachers were still of high quality and the management wasn't affecting them. Unfortunately the management has made some decisions that have jeopardized the school.

The first poor decision was to try to extend the school into the middle school. It has proven very difficult to get Montessori trained teachers at that level, materials are expensive and there weren't enough students to make it financially viable. However, the most influential board members had children at that age level so the decision was made to move forward. Babek was brought in to develop a cirriculum and Derrick was hired to teach the upper levels. Developing a curriculum was nearly an impossible task since the school is a Thai school and needs to follow the Thai Ministry of Education cirriculum but the board wanted to use Montessori methodology and do so in English. Needless to say, Babek quit after 4 months with little to show. Derrick who has been frustrated with his level of support and the lack of discipline in the children who have had free reign has since turned in his resignation letter and will be leaving at the end of the school year.

The second poor decision is to hire a director who has no Montessori training and has very limited English ability. It begs the question as to how he can do his job when he needs to be working with foreign teachers, communicating with foreign parents, at least assisting in developing a Montessori curriculum for the upper grades and ensuring the children get a high quality education in a Montessori environment. Kru Anna's last day will be the 8th of October and if the school has found a replacement, we don't know about it. It seems very unlikely that the current director would know how to attract and interview foreign candidates.

The third poor decision is to continue on without solving the problems of the past. There is still no functioning board. For the past 6 months - here are the minutes of the board: http://blog.pitisuksa.org/ Wow, one meeting! But that is 100% better than the past 5 years where nothing was publish! (Notice that this blog was blamed as the reason why one of the teachers might have not taken the job! Of course it has nothing to do with the management . . . ) The sub-committees that were supposed to get parents involved never materialized. The finances are a deep dark secret (just try to take the finances out of the school so you have a record of what is going on . . .) In short, nothing has improved.

The final poor decision is to blatantly ignore the parents, the people who effectively funding the school. Although the management appears to be nice and understanding, it has become obvious to everyone who has tried to get involved, management has last say, democracy of the board is not welcome and everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.

After a while every parent who takes their children to the school says "this place has such potential" and starts to feel the unrealized dreams that make the school what it is. The quiet garden setting, the small class size, low pressure learning environment, the high quality teachers - could all be combined to make Pitisuksa the best school in Chiang Rai. Unfortunately the management has done such a poor job student numbers are down 25%, teachers are leaving, parents are disillusioned and there is no sense of community. Shame on you for being so small minded, for being unwilling to work with others and for tightly grasping onto a sense of power and in doing so squeezed the vibrancy and creativity out of what could be a beautiful school.

You can read into this blog as sour grapes and in a sense it is - all I really wanted was to get involved, create a sense of community and openness and develop Pitisuksa into a great place but I was blocked at every turn. This blog was my only outlet. I am only giving my side of the story so if you are considering enrolling your children at the school, I encourage you to visit and talk to teachers and parents and form your own opinion. Good luck!

Update Sept. 1, 2010

Although hopes were high at the beginning of the school year, the Board has yet again failed to make any significant improvements at the school. At the beginning of the year they had hired a Canadian consultant, Babek, whose goal was to make Pitisuksa a high quality school. Having years of experience in numerous international schools he is well versed in what it takes to make a school competitive internationally. He set about trying to develop a curriculum that stayed true to the Montessori philosophy yet achieved the goals set forth by the Thai Ministry of Education (because Pitisuksa is registered as a Thai school, NOT international.) He had success in energizing the teachers, getting them excited about communication and involving them as the school was improved structurally and their budgets for materials was increased. Ultimately the consultant realized the problem was in the politics and recommended completely restructuring both the school board and the foundation board. That is what the Parents have suggested time and time again over the years and since it has never happened, the result has been the creation of two break-away schools, the AMEC school and the just recently opened Thai Montessori school. Numerous parents have also taken their children out of Pitisuksa and enrolled them in the Chiang Rai International School, Anuban Chiang Rai and St. Mary's. Ultimately, the consultant decided he had enough and will be leaving after only 5 months! The Board has also failed to find a Principal/Director for the school and of course, there have been no minutes of board meetings published, any financial information shared or any involvement at all of parents. Another concern is that one of the main foreign teachers is leaving in October so two classrooms will probably be consolidated into one. So where does that leave the school? Enrollment is low, very few children stay beyond grade 3 or 4 and now the Board seems to think it is a priority to create a middle school project where there are 5 or 6 kids per grade level! So should you put your kids in the school - find out if the teacher you like is staying or leaving. If they are staying you might be ok, but make sure you expectations for management are LOW, otherwise you will surely be disappointed.

The Board members who find themselves so important and unwilling to step down to allow change need to be reminded of Charles De Gaulle's famous quip: The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

New School Year 2010

The school year started in mid-May. All of the foreign teachers are back - Anna, Harry, Dash and Yuliya (who is temporarily out giving birth) and they have been joined by a Singaporean and Noni, a Thai who was educated abroad is teaching elementary class. Many of the Thai assistant teachers have not returned and the Thai language teacher has also left. Interestingly Oi, the ex-Principal, has also left. Babek was hired as a consultant to assist in curriculum development for the newly formed middle school. At the beginning of the school year he was present but currently he is in Canada taking care of his terminally ill father. So what is the feeling at the school? Babek has certainly made some positive changes. The school looks better and the teachers were enthused about his vision of creating a very high quality school with accountability and transparency. Willem, Champoo and Pattana have been temporarily filling in the void left by Kn. Oi however, being self proclaimed volunteers, it is obvious they can not maintain the role indefinitely and a new Principal will need to be hired. On the 28th of May a group of parents and Noni got together to discuss reforming the PTA since the "subcommittee" idea did not work. The two main concerns raised at the meeting were that the library had been commandeered by the office staff because the office had been turned into a middle school classroom and there was no Principal and no news about the position. Interestingly, on the 1st of June, only 3 days later, the parents received a letter from Pattana stating that the library will be restored by mid-June and that there is a search underway for a Principal. It seems as though the administration is starting to take an interest in the concerns of the parents!

Along those lines, I would like to offer my own recommendations as to how the school can be improved that I believe most parents would agree with:

Board - the Board needs to be a functioning group. Since nearly 50% of the children at the school hold foreign citizenship, the excuse that "the Thai Ministry of Education does not allow foreign board members" just doesn't hold water. Obviously the school has to ask for an exception to that rule or a work-around has to be devised. Secondly, term limits must be enforced. If I am not mistaken, Pattana is on his 11th year even though the charter for the school states no one can be a Board member for longer than 10 years (which even seems excessive.) I propose no one can be a board member for longer than 4 years and elections are held every year. The idea that Board members should be able to select their own friends to board positions is another idea that has had its day. Board members need to be selected from those who sincerely have an interest in improving the school, voted on by the parents, teachers and current board members. There needs to be a Thai teacher and a foreign teacher on the Board. Third, the financial situation of the school is still a closely guarded secret which is at odds with the idea that the school was set up as a non-profit organization. In the charter, the Treasurer needs to provide parents with a financial statement but over the years we have been attending this has NEVER happened. Transparency with the funds is of the utmost importance. Fourth, when the Board meetings do take place, parents need to be advised of what was decided so there should be a monthly newsletter with a summary of the previous month's Board activities. Fifth, set a rule that if a Board member misses a certain number of meetings she is automatically dismissed. If a Board member doesn't have time to attend the Board meetings, she shouldn't be on the Board.

Principal - the role of Principal needs to be clearly defined as well as our expectations of what this person will do for the school. As experience has shown, putting an inexperienced person in that position leads to disaster with parents taking their children out of the school within a year or two.

Thai Teachers - the rate of Thai teacher turnover is still abysmal. It appears that the school does not value them and feels they can be treated like cogs and replaced whenever they are dissatisfied. My recommendation is to hire the best - a Thammasat U or Chula U graduate and pay them an amount they couldn't get elsewhere. Hiring recent grads from Rajapat at terrible salaries hasn't worked because as soon as they get a year or two experience they look for work elsewhere.

Food - the food has gotten better but is still only slightly better than terrible. If the parents are going to have to pay additional money for the food, the quality needs to be improved - a glass of fresh juice, pizza or spaghetti on Friday, organic vegetables, etc.