Annual Review 2010-2011
Cover Drawing
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Sixth grade art students Alex Gost and Bar Ben Avraham collaborated on a painting study of “La Masia”, a key masterpiece by local Catalan artist, Joan Miró.
Table of Contents Letter from the Foundation Board President
5
BFiS Foundation Board
7
Financial overview
8
Parent Program evaluation Survey for 2010-2011
11
Parent teacher Association (PtA)
14
BFiS 25th Anniversary Celebration
18
iB Accreditation
18
Class of 2011
19
external examination results
19
higher education
20
A FOUNDATION for
LIVING and
LEARNING
Benjamin Franklin International School
Letter from the Foundation Board President After years of exploring a dizzying variety of campus expansion options, the Foundation Board was delighted to finally secure the property on Passatge de Torras i Bages which was beautifully renovated last summer. Its integration into our existing campus almost doubled our physical space, providing a hugely improved, luminous learning and working environment for our students and teachers. This significant capital investment was made possible thanks to years of sound financial oversight and the contributions of many members of our community. In addition to our dedicated Facilities Committee, led by Boris Mulder, and including Susanna Soler, Gonzalo Rodés, Joe Santos, Serena Washburn, Sol Gómez, Tom Northrup and the talented professionals engaged on the project, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Sánchez Vicario family, the Roca family, and to our Director of Finance and Operations, Monica Chitnis, for their invaluable contributions. 2010-2011 was a year of leadership transition for our school as we bid farewell to our Director, David Penberg, who returned to the United States to pursue other challenges, and we welcomed Tom Northrup as our Interim Head of School. The Board worked with Tom on several academic initiatives, the most significant of which was the addition of several new teaching positions meant to further improve the quality and differentiation of our program and to prepare for our new IB Diploma Program. The BFIS community is a highly engaged, diverse and extraordinary group of individuals. It is strengthened by lively discussion, varied perspectives, and close collaboration. I feel fortunate to be a part of it all and honored to work with the very capable and dedicated people who make up the school’s Foundation Board.
Dianna O´Doherty President Foundation Board
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CharACter Community &
Curriculum
Benjamin Franklin International School
BFIS Foundation Board The BFIS Foundation Board is the school’s governing body, responsible for defining and safeguarding its mission and for ensuring the school’s long-term success and stability. It is comprised of parents and other members of the Barcelona community who volunteer their time, informing the Board’s strategic planning efforts with a diverse set of opinions, skills and talents. Ten Board members are appointed for three-year terms, and may serve a maximum of three consecutive terms.
Foundation Board members 2010-2011 Karen Cervantes Monica Chitnis (non-voting) Greggory Crouch Javier Curtichs Wendy de la Torre* – Secretary Pankaj Ghemawat* Robin Khan* Kamran Mohsenin Boris Mulder – Treasurer and Chair of Facilities Committee Dianna O’Doherty – President and Chair of Development Committee David Penberg (non-voting) Gonzalo Rodés Vila Susanna Soler – Vice President and Chair of Governance Committee * Retired or retiring trustees.
The Board’s work includes four main areas: program, finances, facilities and hiring, overseeing and evaluating the school’s Head of School and Director of Finance and Operations. The Board determines the school’s program, establishes school policy, approves the school’s budgets, ensures that our financial resources are being allocated in keeping with the school’s overall mission, and that facilities meet school needs. Much of the work of the Board is accomplished in Board Committees, where many other members of the school community also contribute their expertise.
The Board’s 2010-2011 Standing Committees were: Academic Committee – oversees academic policy and initiatives Development Committee – oversees marketing and fundraising Facilities Committee – responsible for the school’s current and future facilities Finance Committee – responsible for school budgets, financial oversight and planning Governance Committee – responsible for Board membership, training and compliance [7]
AnnUAL reVieW 2010-2011
Financial Overview BFiS remains in excellent financial health, adding to our reserve base in 2010-2011 and positioning ourselves to embark on Phase ii of our Campus improvement Project (CiP). operating Budget 2010-2011 As an independent, not-for-profit entity, the Benjamin Franklin international School relies almost exclusively on tuition and other school fees to support the school program and daily operations.
operating income 96,2% // tuition & Matriculation. net of Multifamily Discounts // 5,624,558€ 1% // Lunch // 55,632€ 0,8% // Bank interest // 46,070€ 0,8% // operating Grant // 44,000€ 0,7% // Bus // 40,689€ 0,4% // extracurricular, Summer Program & Adult Language Program // 20,681€ 0,3% // Application Fees // 17,570€
TOTAL OPERATING INCOmE
5,849,200€
operating expenses 62% // Academic Salaries & Compensation // 3,625,318€ 9,3% // BFiS operating reserves // 546,826€ 7,5% // operations & it Salaries & Compensation // 437,338€ 5% // Administrative // 290,586€ 4,9% // Buildings & Grounds // 289,529€ 4,8% // instructional expenses // 278,658€ 2% // Delinquent Accounts, indemnity & Legal Liability expenses // 115,650€ 1,8% // rent // 106,853€ 1,5% // Security & Safety // 90,211€ 1,2% // Utilities // 67,329€ 0% // interest Payments // 902€
TOTAL OPERATING EXPENSES & RESERVES
5,849,200€
TOTAL OPERATING EXPENSES
5,302,374€
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Benjamin Franklin International School
Summary of Operating Results In 2010-2011, BFIS’ Operating Income totaled 5,849,200€ based on an enrollment of 540 students. While 96% of our operating income came from tuition and matriculation fees, we did significantly raise the revenues generated from bank interest in 2010-2011 by investing a substantial portion of our accumulated reserves in higher yielding bank CD’s (certificates of deposit) and by pursuing a small operating grant from the U.S. Government. In terms of Operating Expenses, it will come as no surprise that our greatest cost item is the compensation of our teachers and academic administrators, as we continue striving to attract the best international educators to our school. Total academic salaries and benefits accounted for about 62% of our total operating budget, while another 5% was spent on instructional supplies. Operational expenses – that is, the non-academic costs associated with running the school day-to-day which include administrative, office, maintenance, cleaning, and rent expenses – accounted for another 23% of our Operating Budget. In total, our operating expenses were 5,302,374€ for the 2010-2011 academic year. We are very pleased to report that the positive difference of 546,826€ between Operating Income and Operating Expenses in 2010-2011, or 9% of our total Operating Budget, was added to our growing cushion of Operating Reserves (see chart on the next page: BFIS Cumulative Reserves).
Summary of Capital Fund Results The one-time Capital Fund fees paid by new students upon initial matriculation differs from annual school fees in that they are intended to fund capital expenditures, rather than support the day-to-day operations of our school. This annual source of funds varies significantly from year to year, depending on the number of new students joining our community each year. In 2010-2011 124 new students matriculated at BFIS – 11 fewer than in 2009-2010 - generating 421,600€ in Capital Fund Income. While non-operational, capital expenditures would typically be focused on the school’s infrastructure needs in any given year, our 2010-2011 Capital Fund Budget was utilized almost exclusively to fund Phase I of our Campus Improvement Project (CIP). During the summer of 2011, we invested just over €1 million in campus infrastructure, including investments in technology, in order to complete the renovation of three floors of the new MS/HS building and increase the use of technology in our classrooms. Because our Capital Fund income for the year (421,600€) fell well short of this total investment, the balance of 564,756€ was funded from our Cumulative Reserves.
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Annual Review 2010-2011
Summary of Reserve Position Even after the substantial investment in improvements to our new MS/HS building this year, our school remains in excellent financial health, with about 1,614,000â‚Ź in total accumulated reserves as of September 2011.
BFIS Cumulative Reserves* 2006 - 2011
2,000 1,633
1,614
Thousands of EUR
1,500 1,139
1,000 586
500
0
-500
06 -271
-64
07
08
09
10
11
September - Years
*Total reserves include annual depreciation - a non-cash item specifically intended to provide for investment in buildings, equipment and infrastructure over time.
Campus Improvement Project (CIP) With virtually no debt on our books, BFIS is in a strong financial position from which to now embark on Phase II of our CIP. We are thrilled to have a highly talented and proven team in place, consisting of H2L2 Architects and Designers, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based architectural firm specializing in international schools, Edetco Tecnics, a local construction management company with extensive expertise in Barcelona, and our own Facilities Committee. Working in close collaboration with the Foundation Board and members of the administration and faculty, we are in the process of developing a Facilities Master Plan and are confident that the next phase of our Campus Improvement Project will provide our school with wonderfully enhanced physical space to continue developing our program in exciting ways.
Monica R. Chitnis Director of Finance and Operations
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BenJAMin FrAnkLin internAtionAL SChooL
Parent Program Evaluation Survey for 2010-2011 in May 2011, a parent satisfaction survey was sent to all BFiS families. the survey was designed to provide the Foundation Board, the school administration and the Parent teacher Association (PtA) with feedback on areas ranging from curriculum to food service. 60% of our parents responded to the survey and, in addition, provided over 350 individual comments. We thank the many parents who took the time to provide their feedback and will be asking for your participation again, this spring, in completing the 2011-2012 survey. While we were very encouraged to have 90% of responding parents indicate “satisfied” or “very satisfied” when asked, “how satisfied are you with the overall quality of education that your child is receiving at BFiS?”, the responses to the many other questions clearly highlighted our strengths and weaknesses and were very helpful to the school’s leadership in establishing priorities for the 2011-12 school year and beyond. in September 2011, interim head of School, tom northrup, provided a brief summary of several of these important changes and more detail is provided below. An analysis of the 2010-2011 survey results and comments highlighted the following areas of strength and areas in need of improvement:
Strengths • the BFiS community - both for students and parents. • the individual care and respect for each student. • the response by teachers to parental questions and concerns in a meaningful and timely manner. • electronic weekly newsletter (need to have fewer emails). • the prompt follow-up of the operations team (finance, business office, and community relations) to parental questions and concerns. • the quality of school events run by the PtA, by the administration, and by the students.
Areas to improve • Language Acquisition programs, in particular Spanish. • Continued emphasis on differentiation of instruction, particularly in Middle and high School Math. • Lunch program. • Board communication to parents. • Physical education program. • After-school activities and extra-Curricular program.
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Annual Review 2010-2011
Among the important changes that have already been made, or set in motion, in response to the 2010-2011 parent survey, are the following:
More differentiation in the classroom and better learning support Parents indicated they would like to see more differentiation in instruction, particularly in certain subjects such as Math and Languages. Given our school’s mission to foster each child’s learning and growth, the ability to differentiate instruction is something we want to do well. In order to address this, the Foundation Board approved the creation of several additional full-time and part-time teaching positions for the 2011-2012 school year. These additional teachers have allowed us to break classes down into smaller groups, allowing for more individualized instruction. To further improve instruction and learning, our Learning Support program was strengthened this year with additional teacher training from the Shelton School’s Teacher Training Institute and the addition of more Learning Support resources in ES. These resources are wonderful for our students with learning differences but they are valuable to all of our students as they provide methodologies to enhance teaching overall. In addition, as our Learning Support program is further strengthened, we are hoping to address the concerns that many parents raised in the survey regarding a need for better “Student study skills and effective time management techniques”.
Stronger Math program We invited Monica Neagoy, a specialist in Math curriculum and instruction, to assess our current Math program and make recommendations for its improvement. Her work with our teachers has already been beneficial and we began to rethink how we teach Math at BFIS. For 2011-2012 we began by creating smaller instructional groups in order to better address the needs of our students whose Math proficiencies vary widely. We will continue to increase the differentiation of this program by providing for more and smaller classes. Dr. Neagoy will return in 2012-2013 for more extensive teacher training and to work on the integration of technology into our Math curriculum.
Better language acquisition Language acquisition is central to our school’s work, and parent feedback highlighted the fact that we need to improve both our English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Spanish as an Additional Language (SAL) programs. To begin, organizational changes were made to these programs this year in order to provide a more cohesive program across all grades. The impact of these changes is being assessed this year and these programs remain a focus for further improvements. BFIS’ language acquisition programs are a key part of our curriculum and we are committed to working on their continued improvement.
Physical Education We made great efforts to respond to parent feedback, across all grades levels, on the need to improve our Physical Education program. We hope you’ll agree that moving our PE program to Can Caralleu has made a [12]
Benjamin Franklin International School
substantial difference in 2011-2012, both in terms of the caliber of the facilities, the variety of activities available to our students and the quality of instruction. We know more work remains to strengthen the PE curriculum and we will be working with our PE teachers to this end.
Board communication Parents indicated that they did not feel sufficiently informed about the BFIS Foundation Board and its work. To begin to respond to this, we expanded the information available on the school’s website and have provided minutes of the Board’s monthly meetings in 2011-2012 to keep the community up to date. We also introduced several “Breakfast with the Board” sessions, over the second semester of 2011-2012, to provide opportunities for parents to get additional information on the school’s governance and the Board’s work.
Food service As many of you know, our lunch program has been a source of dissatisfaction for some time. Despite a new food service provider in 2010-2011, the survey indicated that we had not yet solved this problem. For 20112012 we contracted with another new food service provider, Cuina Justa, to deliver our lunch program and early feedback has been positive overall. We now have an expanded and improved menu, focused on good nutrition and balance, which seeks to appeal to our students’ varied tastes. We’ll continue looking for specific feedback on our lunch service so that we can further improve it. Several other areas where parent satisfaction was lower than we’d like are being reviewed this year so as to develop effective plans for improvement and allocate resources accordingly. These include College Counseling, Catalan Studies, Student Reports and Technology. As you can see, your opinion and feedback is tremendously important to BFIS, to its administrators, PTA, and to the Foundation Board as we seek to provide our students with the best possible education and school experience. Please continue to provide this critical data by completing the 2011-2012 survey when you receive it later this year.
Most Sincerely, BFIS Foundation Board, Administration and PTA
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AnnUAL reVieW 2010-2011
Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in the 2010-2011 school year, the PtA Board focused on three main areas: strengthening current PtA programs, improving new-family programs, and positioning the PtA as a more meaningful voice for parents within our school.
the PtA helped to organize the following events throughout the year: • new Families orientation
• Pancake Day
• Welcome Coffee
• Jump rope for heart refreshments
• international Groceries field trip
• Meet and Greet tom northrup
• halloween Party
• Art Show refreshments
• holiday Coffee and Crafts (for parents)
• international Food Fair
• holiday Cava and Cookies (for teachers)
• Sports Day refreshments
• Parent Workshop: Surviving Your Child’s Sexual
• Wizard of oz concession stand
Development (Mary Gillcoat) • Parent Workshop: Your Child’s Social and emotional health (Dr. Santandreu) • Frosty Friday
• Monthly Lost and Found Clean out (clothing donated to charity) • Parent Workshop & Panel: “race to nowhere” • ticket sales for Sant Jordi
the proceeds generated from PtA events were used to underwrite the cost of the Sant Jordi celebration, subsidize a shuttle bus and drinks for the teacher kick off party, contribute two mobile art walls for the Art Department, and purchase art display strips for the elementary School. We were particularly pleased with our new Families orientation program - a three-day event held the first week of school. the feedback from our families was extremely positive, and we look forward to continuing the program next year. Looking ahead, we will be collaborating with school counselors on developing a consistent, strong, school-wide buddy program, which will take place over the summer and culminate in a two-day expanded School Welcome program. We are also working with the Art, Music and Library teachers to help them attract and retain more parent support and volunteers. We are calling this program the PiSA program (Parents in Support of the Arts). Finally, we have been working to strengthen the role of the PtA in the school. our PtA Board will remain unchanged for 2011-2012, which will enable us to maintain our momentum on current initiatives - such as Parent Workshops and a quarterly newsletter. in addition, we want to continue providing parents with a voice within the school. in particular, we want to ensure that once parents express their concerns to us, we have the opportunity to regularly communicate those concerns to the school’s administration and the Foundation Board in a constructive way. Going forward, it will be vital to readdress communication channels, moving beyond the room Parent network (which sometimes overwhelms parents with more than one BFiS student with repeated emails) and the Weekly, and developing a dedicated PtA email account that can address families specifically. Finally, if possible, we hope to establish a dedicated Parent resource room to provide a space to hold PtA meetings, to collaborate with teachers and school administrators, to host room Parent meetings, to sponsor parent presentations, and more. [14]
Benjamin Franklin International School
THANK YOU to all the BFIS VOLUNTEERS!!! Revenue
EUROS
Expenditures
EUROS
Events
13,975
Sponsored Activities*
8,920
BFIS Contribution
5,075
School Contributions**
7,970
Total Revenue
19,050
Total Expenditures
16,890
Net Income
2,160â‚Ź
PTA officers 2010-2011 Marjolijn Mac Conuladh, President Jessica Ziegler, Vice President Ed de Wolf, Vice President Anouschka Orueta, Treasurer Anurada Ghemawat, Secretary Genevieve Hiltebrand, Teacher Liaison
*School Activities Halloween International Food Fair
**School Contributions Music donation Donation Sant Jordi Mobile art walls Wizard of Oz concession stand Art Show Road to Nowhere movie sponsorship
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Annual Review 2010-2011
Character Community Service, Habitat for Humanity, Senegal
Community and Tradition Sant Jordi Festival
Curriculum International Dedicated Teachers
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Benjamin Franklin International School
Campus Improvement Project (CIP), MS/HS Campus,
more green space
Campus Improvement Project (CIP),
MS/HS Library
Committed to Faculty & Parent Education. Dr. Michael Thompson
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Annual Review 2010-2011
BFIS 25th Anniversary Celebration Over 300 members of the BFIS community gathered on April 30th, 2011 to celebrate our school’s 25th Anniversary. It was an extraordinarily moving evening and an important milestone in our BFIS history. We were delighted to welcome school founders together with past and present staff, teachers, trustees, parents and students. We were also honored to have Xavier Mayo from the BCN Ajuntament and Greggory Crouch, the US Consul General in Barcelona, join the festivities. The celebration was held at El Principal, a wonderfully elegant setting in the heart of Barcelona, with a charming outdoor patio and library. The venue was beautifully decorated with pictures of BFIS through the years and a wonderful video, which included interviews with founding parents, students and faculty, was on view throughout the evening. In honor of the occasion, Pilar Hernando and Alexandra Oriol prepared A History of BFIS, detailing the school’s origins and growth over the last quarter century. Our own Feargal MacConuladh was Master of Ceremonies for the evening, which included several heartfelt speeches and some very entertaining performances, most notably from several members of the school’s Wizard of Oz cast. Dancing followed downstairs – a lovely way to end a memorable evening. Special thanks to all those who made the evening such a great success, particularly our donors, Fluendo, Alberta La Grup, Coco-Mat, Estudi 6, Freixenet, Securitas, Serunion, Tinkle, and Vistaprint and our event organizers, Serena Washburn, Monica Planas, Pilar Parmigiana, Carmen Trepat, Ester Saracho, Pilar Hernando, Alexandra Oriol, Roberto Baldizón and David Magaña.
IB Accreditation We were very pleased when, in April 2011, our school was authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization to offer the Diploma Program beginning in the fall of 2011. The realization of the IB Diploma Program reinforces our international school identity and represents the fulfillment of another aspect of the “BFIS dream” envisioned by our founders. The Class of 2013 will be our first graduating class, with all students enrolled in IB classes. The timing of the campus expansion could not have been better, as the Library Commons and additional space afforded by the new MS/HS building have positively impacted the learning environment for both students and teachers. Our MS/HS teachers and adminitrators are working together to make our IB program a success – and I have no doubt that despite expected challenges, we will succeed in providing our students an exciting and rigorous two-year program to cap off their BFIS education.
Kili Lay IB Coordinator, Director of Instruction & Staff Development
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Benjamin Franklin International School
Class of 2011 Congratulations to our Class of 2011! Beatriz Alonso Zachary Andrus Montserrat Corbi Pujol Emma Efmorfidi Ben Feldberg Nicholas D. Flohn Daniel Fragachán Quintero Nadim Kuttab Carlota Molina Vila Samuel Ordoñez Michael Perrone Mohnish Vasudev Raheja Kenya Sauer Nathlie Sintès Jared Taylor Wolf Ander Yilmaz Bescos
External Examination Results Selectividad Summary In June 2011, all seniors who sat for the PAU (Pruebas de acceso a la Universidad), passed the Selectividad examination and were successful in obtaining both both their American High School Diploma and the Spanish Bachillerato degree. Year
Mean final
2011
7.04
2010
7.23
2009
7.30
2008
7.57
2007
7.09
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Annual Review 2010-2011
Advance Placement (AP) Summary BFIS students were again very successful in their Advanced Placement (AP) exams, sitting for 89 exams and obtaining strong scores across 15 AP courses. Year
BFIS mean score
BFIS AP scores of 3 or better
BFIS AP scores of 4 or better
2011
3.76
85%
60%
2010
4.00
89%
72%
2009
3.74
80%
61%
2008
3.74
80%
67%
2007
3.76
82%
61%
Higher Education BFIS Graduates’ College and University Acceptances: Babson College, USA
Syracuse University, USA
University of Edinburgh, UK
Bentley University, USA
Trinity College, USA
University of Greenwich, UK
Case Western Reserve University, USA
Universidad de Barcelona (UB), Spain
University of Leeds, UK
Clark University, USA
- Anthropology
University of Liverpool, UK
Cologne Business School, Germany
- Criminology
University of Madrid, Spain
Colorado State University, USA
- Engineering
Franklin College, Switzerland
- Political Science
University of Manchester, UK Medical Engineering with Management
Ithaca College, USA
- Tourism
Jönköping University, Sweden
- Business Administration
King’s College London, UK London School of Economics, UK
Universidad de Ramón Llull ESADE, Spain
University of Manchester, UK University of Nottingham, UK University of Oregon, USA University of Plymouth, UK
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (AUB) - Hotel Management
University of Richmond, USA
University College London, UK
University of Vermont (UVM), USA
University of Bremen, Germany
University of Warwick, UK
University of California, Irvine, USA
Villanova University, Spain
University of California, Riverside, USA
Wake Forest University (ED), USA
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
University of California, San Diego, USA
Webster University, Leiden, Holland
Southern Methodist University, USA
University of Connecticut, USA
Xavier University, USA
Manhattanville College, USA Northeastern University, USA Pace University, USA Queen’s University, Canada Richmond the American Int’l University of London, UK
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University of Strathclyde, UK
Annual Review Staff Editors Núria Borrell Maribel Castillo Monica Chitnis Dianna O’Doherty Translators Anouschka Orueta Débora Real Contributors Monica Chitnis Laura Esteban Kili Lay PTA Layout & Design Sacajugo Serena Washburn
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this report. We apologize in advance for any errors or omissions and encourage your comments and suggestions. Please contact Serena Washburn, Director of Community Relations & Marketing, serenaw@bfischool.org.
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Contact Us: E-mail: info@bfischool.org Phone: +34 93 434 23 80 - Fax: +34 93 417 36 33 Web: www.bfischool.org www.facebook.com/BFIS.school Benjamin Franklin International School C. Martorell i Pe単a, 9 - 08017 Barcelona, Spain
Accreditations & Memberships