Minutes of the SAC meeting held on Thursday, 14 October 2010

Members present:

Mr Høyem, Director
Mr Pialoglou, Deptuy Head Secondary
Mrs Pavličíková, Deputy Head Primary
Mr Dannenmaier, Bursar
Mr Cooke, Vice-Chairman for SAC
Mr Roosegaarde, Vice-Chairman for SAC
Mr Sperl, Vice-Chairman for SAC
Mrs Stricker, CdP representative for the Secondary
Mr Quéré, representative for the Kindergarten
Mrs Bräunsdorf, representative for the CdC
Mr Villain, representative for PAS
Mr van Uffelen for ITU
Mrs Winthrop, member of the PA
Mrs Sierig, member of the PA
Mrs Braun, representative for Primary activities

Members excused:

Mrs Delveau, Educational Adviser
Mr Bourgeois, Secondary CdP representative
Mrs Spenlé, Primary CdP representative
Mrs Gabriel, Primary Deputy CdP representative
Member of the SMV
Mrs Grossmann, representative for Etoile Education
Mr Frisch, representative for the City of Karlsruhe

Draft agenda for the SAC meeting on Thursday, 14 October 2010 at 15.45 h in the conference room of ESK

General introduction by the Chairman of SAC, Mr Tom Høyem, Headmaster

Status from the three Vice Chairmen

- Value and Spirit and Werte Ethos : Hugh Cooke

- Kommunikation – extern und intern / Imagevermarktung / ESK 2012 : 
 Francois Roosegaarde

- Pädagogische Belange und Entwicklungen / Kooperation zwischen den
 Sprachsektionen : Markus Sperl 

Priorities to be put forward to the Administration Board for the coming three years
(Multi Annual Plan)

“The organisation of meetings of the SAC shall be governed by rules drawn up and adopted by the SAC” (from document 2009-D-46-en-1 Draft rules of procedure for: 
a) the School Advisory Council b) The Administrative Board presented in the Directors’ Meeting on 22 June 2009) 

Other business

The issue “2012” is to be added under agenda point 5) Other business.

With this addition the agenda is approved.

Agenda point 1) General introduction by the Chairman of SAC, Mr Tom Høyem, Headmaster

Last school year was a transition year for SAC and the discussion on reforms
SAC must meet at least 2 x per school year
According to the rules, the chairing of SAC meetings by the PA is not possible. This was a point which was raised at the last SAC meeting in September.
Last school year three Vice-Chairmen were appointed and have met several times with their working groups.

Agenda point 2) Status from the three Vice-Chairmen

Kommunikation - extern und intern / Imagevermarktung / ESK 2012

The group Mr Roosegaarde chairs is functioning very well and there has been a lively exchange on all levels of the school community. A buddy system was introduced and the internal communication eg. registration of new students has improved greatly.
A brochure for the Secondary in German is now finished. Mr Dannenmaier has corrected the German version. Translation into English and French now needs to be done. It is suggested that CdC’s could do this should no one be found. The Deputy Heads will help find someone for this task.
The web site is coming along and the first version will possibly be presented at the Pedagogical Day on 8 November.
Planned tasks for the future are
Improvement of communication
To improve the transparency of the school
To portray the school more professionally
To develop a system in order to create a dialogue (2 way communication)

Pädagogische Belange und Entwicklungen / Kooperation zwischen den Sprachsektionen

Mr Sperl reports that until now the group has focused on the issue of learning difficulties. Last week the group met to discuss this (see minutes attached). The group focused on concentration problems and learning deficiencies – their possible causes and how to tackle these causes. The first step is to contact the parents. This is a point that still needs to be discussed and how this is to be done. Perhaps at the next Pedagogical Day these issues could be addressed.
The increase in SWALS pupils in the school demands more special support. This needs to be looked into.

Value and Spirit and Werte Ethos

Mr Cooke’s group has concentrated on the newly installed Buddy system. There will be a meeting after the Pedagogic Day where suggestions are to be collected how to improve the system. An evaluation of how it has gone until now (was it introduced to all new pupils?) should come out in mid November. A questionnaire is to go out to the new pupils to ask them how the Buddy system functioned for them.

The group sees the necessity to portray the national holidays more intensely in order to awaken consciousness and to allow for more national identity.

This school year the group will look into how social events and charity can be linked.

Agenda point 3) Priorities to be put forward to the Administration Board for the coming three years (Multi Annual Plan)

Mr Høyem sees two priorities:

Increasing the number of pupils in the French language section. In the Primary L2 is becoming a great problem since the number of pupils wanting to take French as a second language has diminished. 
A French mother, a marketing professional, is willing to collect ideas in the next 6 to 7 months in order to set up a strategy to improve the situation.

Mr van Uffelen suggests the distribution of a questionnaire to the parents in the French section in order to find out how they feel and how they see the situation. The causes must be analysed why parents do not want to send their children to the French section.

It is suggested that in France (Alsace) more advertising about the school should be made. There are still ITU parents living in France who do not send their children to ESK. One reason is that the school only offers the EB.

The school fee situation needs to be looked into. Mr Høyem asked a local lawyer to analyse the contract situation. ESK is unique because it allows families and not just institutions, to sign category II contracts. ESK also accepts families as category III in the Nursery who then become category II starting in 1 Primary. 
Due to the closing of the Italian and Dutch section the school has lost pupils. Ten years ago there were over 1100, this school year ESK only has 948. The amount of pupils influences the calculations of the school fees. Fewer pupils mean higher school fees.
Three things are being done about this:

In the Budgetary Committee Mr Kuhn, the Assistant of the Secretary General, Mrs Christmann, will suggest that all schools should have the same category II school fee (around € 10.900). The Commission would lose around € 1.2 Mio per school year.
Mr Høyem suggests that all schools in one country should have the same school fee. Here the Commission would lose around € 700.000/ 800.000 per school year.
A father, Mr Weir, is making a cost/benefit calculation to see how high the school fees need to be in order to cover the costs. Sponsoring, in order to support families, should be introduced. Companies are to be approached to suggest that they pay part of the school fees of their employees should this not be the case.

Mrs Pavličíková also has two priorities:

The transition from Primary to Secondary remains an important issue which is continually being worked upon in order to improve it.
The cooperation between ESK and the newly established KITA. The KITA started in September with 40 children.

Mr Pialoglou’s priority:

The school is not only a language school but also very strong in the Sciences. Therefore the image of the school needs to be more defined. 
Mr Sperl suggests that this should go on the first page of the school web site.


Agenda point 4) “The organisation of meetings of the SAC shall be governed by rules drawn up and adopted by the SAC” (from document 2009-D-46-en-1 Draft rules of procedure for: 
a) the School Advisory Council b) The Administrative Board presented in the Directors’ Meeting on 22 June 2009)

Before the end of January a draft of the priorities put forth today will be discussed within the SAC group in order to set up an Annual Activity Plan for the Administration Board meeting.

The procedure is as follows:

In May the school writes an Annual Activity Report
In the October/November Administration Board meeting the report is presented and discussed.
In the January Administration Board meeting an Annual Activity Plan is presented.

On behalf of the parents Mrs Winthrop would like the rule to be added that documents and the agenda for meetings should be sent out at least 10 days before the meeting will take place. Minutes should be sent out the latest 10 days after the meeting.

For the next SAC meeting a Secretary needs to be chosen and the possibility of Co-Chairmanship needs to be looked into.

A small working group is to be formed to prepare the suggestions for the Annual Activity Plan. The group will be composed of Mr Høyem, a parent, 2 members of the seconded staff - one from Primary (Mrs Pavličíková will look into this) and one from Secondary (Mrs Stricker will ask her colleagues) and Mrs Bräunsdorf for the CdC. The group will meet after the November Administration Board meeting and one more time before Christmas.

Agenda point 5) Other business

Mr Høyem informs the SAC meeting that a working group “2012” with 4 to 5 persons will be set up chaired by Mrs Pavličíková. Mrs Kleinschnitger has already shown her interest to join.

Karlsruhe, 04.11.2010

Brigitte Braunschweig
Secretary of the meeting