Farewell Dr. ‘B’

Dear IC friends, In this, my last letter as the President of International College, I am both expressing my gratitude and sharing some of the school improvement initiatives of the past five years. Each initiative is the result of the collective efforts of all who are dedicated to International College and its students. Improvement and progress initiatives also require adaptability, flexibility and change. These are valuable life skills that students apply naturally, but that often makes us adults uncomfortable. I am aware that not all of the initiatives embarked upon have been seen as popular, as adding value, or being 100% successful. But for those of us entrusted with positions of influence and leadership, a major responsibility is to be a constant advocate and pursuer of progress, improvement, and growth.

Upon the solid foundation of IC’s past, the following represent some of the notable school improvement initiatives taken during the past five years:

n Established a formal College Admissions and Career Guidance Office. n Established a school-wide counseling program focusing on students’ social and emotional wellness from pre-school through secondary. n Expanded IC’s special needs support across all grade levels from pre-school through middle school by adding specially trained teachers to support and assist students with learning challenges such as attention deficit hyper-activity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dysgraphia, and visual or auditory processing deficits. n Added native French certified Assistant Directors to oversee, monitor and strengthen

IC’s French section programs. n Appointed Heads of Programs for the Secondary School with expertise in the

Lebanese and French Baccalaureate programs to provide oversight, supervision and support comparable to that provided for the IB program. n Identified school-wide subject area specialists (e.g. math, science, social studies, Arabic,

English and French) to strengthen classroom teachers subject content knowledge and

to ensure a solid foundation of subject content and appropriate sequencing of skills and concepts as students’ progress from one grade level to the next. n Initiated the restructuring of the elementary PYP program by adding more specific and concrete academic content and resources to supplement the strengths of the PYP. n Initiated the Danielson teacher professional development, supervision and performance appraisal protocol to improve the quality of teaching. n Promoted the concept of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) to enhance

IC’s traditional strengths in Math and Science theory and knowledge. n Successful reaccreditation of IC programs and services from four major school quality control organizations/ agencies including the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC),

Council of International Schools (CIS),

International Baccalaureate Office (IBO), and the Agency for French Education

Abroad (AEFE). n Created a more cooperative and inviting school/ parent partnership characterized by more openness, transparency, and communication. n Planted seeds to begin IC’s transition from a predominately teacher centered instructional methodology at the middle and secondary schools to one that reflects a more positive, encouraging and supportive learning environment where students share the responsibility for their learning, that utilizes widely recognized research based educational “best practices”, and classrooms where student’s potential and accountability is maximized through positive encouragement and recognition rather than a philosophy of consequences and sanctions. n Expanded the number and range of after school/co-curricular sports, clubs, and activities. n Prioritized student and campus security. n Proposed and supported the transition to a new, comprehensive, and multi-faceted student data software platform (Power

School).

I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, parents and alumni for what has been a most gratifying professional experience and one of the highlights of more than four decades as an international school educator. I have served as a teacher, director and head of seven international schools on five continents. Each school has had its own unique characteristics, culture, opportunities and challenges. All of them experienced significant enrollment growth and increasing demand for admission. Many, like IC, were engaged in major campus redevelopment and construction projects, all were a blend of US, international and host country cultural environments, all served a demanding parent community with high expectations, and finally, all had remarkable and incredibly talented students. In closing, I am proud to have been a part of IC for the past five years and to have had the opportunity to experience Lebanon’s fascinating history and culture. Of course, it is people that represent culture and of all the countries and cultures I’ve lived in, it is YOU, the LEBANESE that have made these past five years so remarkable. My only regret is that I didn’t discover IC and Lebanon much earlier in my career. I can honestly say that I have experienced the cliché of having “saved the best for last”.