American Educational Association Board Meeting Minutes:  October 22, 2007 7:00 pm, Secondary Library Board Members:   Present: Robert Wert                     Chair Robert Boni                     Vice-Chair Brent Lindsey Jane Hutchinson          Toni Lampell Sandra Irvine Edgar Muñoz Isaac Gallegos Absent:                 Marianne Walter          Quorum present?         Yes   Others Present:          Toni Romero                     US Ambassador’s Representative Peter Zeitoun                   Superintendent/Secondary Principal Marcy Pareja                    Elementary Principal     Rich Dierkes, María Inarra      Teacher Representatives I.  Opening:     Meeting called to order at 7:12 p.m. A.      Agenda was approved. B.      Minutes were not approved since the secretary wasn’t present and there were some changes. Parents who were in the audience and wanted to speak were asked to please sign up a sheet. II. Community Reports provided by:  Community, PTA, Faculty Rep, Student Rep A. PTA:  Not present B.      Search Committee:  We have received 9 applications. We will meet on Saturday, October 27 at 9am to decide who the finalists will be. Peter will be one of the four final finalists. C.      Faculty Representative:  Question if the teachers are going to be paid in a different way through the foundation established in the U.S. The answer was: Yes, we have a foundation but we are trying to figure out how exactly to pay the teachers since we have to pay IVA plus 1.25% tax for transferring the money plus 12.50% an extra tax (this will be around an extra 100,000 dollars). Paying SS in the States, will save a little money for us.    III. Superintendent’s Report presented by:  Dr. Peter Zeitoun A.      Enrollment increased slightly – see green sheet for details.   B.      Things happening around the school –see green sheet for details. a.       Parent-teacher conferences. Elementary 100% attendance, secondary low attendance. b.      San Ignacio was a good experience for our kids. c.      Middle School Madness was a big success. d.      HS Jazz concert was a good money maker for Save the Children. e.      Pro-Sorata now issues tax deductible receipts for U.S. citizens. IV. Board Reports presented by:   A.       Finance Committee – See green sheet for details   Finance committee announced the payment of tax obligation due – this information had been held closely by the board pending the transfer of funds from reserve accounts in the US.  Disclosure prior to payment could have cost the school a 100 percent penalty.    B.       Communications Committee – See green sheet for details a.      Together with the PTA are looking to organize an international holiday celebration in December. Don’t know when. C.    Policy Committee – See green sheet for detail         Special connection will be sent regarding the votes. They have to be up to date with the tuition in order to vote. D.  Finance Committee –See green sheet for details    We do anticipate a class for 3 years old.         We have more category B students than ever. 39 category B students will be grandfathered as category A. Capital fee (categories A and B) KGII – 2                3,000 3 to 5                  7,000 6 to 12                   10,000         By increasing category A and B this will bring another teacher in math and science and AP biology. This year advanced and regular students are separated. For second semester will be AP calculus (second variable calculus). Budgeted 2 overseas teachers. To cycle out 36 students. Peter will look in the local community to find qualified teachers. From 3 PE to 2 PE with and aide. 0 % increase category A 6 % increase category B 0 % increase salaries We are paying for a high quality education. We have the highest SAT scores in the country. Category A –Bolivian citizens Category B – everybody else Everybody presently in category B won’t be increased. We need to have a better idea to see what potential new students may be here in January. Maria Teresa Guillen. Policy on how to attract new students hasn’t been thought by the board.  Category B can’t have increases. Very many people could consider taking their kids out because of tuition going up. One reason why tuition is high is due to unknown amount of students. Marketing committee will go out. We have started changes. IVA wasn’t been paid a few years ago. Bolivia is the only place in the world we have to pay IVA on our school. We can’t promise not to increase tuition in our school. We can’t commit the new board. We need to start a marketing effort. There will be a marketing meeting and everybody is welcome. Tabbie Saenz. Nobody is a market expert so we need to hire one. Mr. Carrasco. If we are a non profit school, why are we paying IVA? Motion approved – Increase 0% category A                                  Increase 6% category B VI. Adjournment – meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.