Board Chair Visit on Friday (21 Aug 2015)

Dear Faculty –

From experience, I consider the SSIS board structure to be the best I have every worked under. Some schools have board made up of current parents. While always well meaning, they can sometimes become bogged down in the details of school operations and miss the long-term vision of the school after their children graduate.

Some schools are owned by individuals and corporations bent on extracting the maximum profit possible from the operation. The results are sometimes that you have students in the seats whom the school cannot really serve well or a situation where financial decisions consider only costs and not the benefits to the mission of the school.

SSIS is part of Phu My Hung and the amazing development of District 7. Our operations, though, are run as a single unit based on the Mission and Core Values of SSIS. That is, none of the tuition or fees collected by SSIS ever leave the school. All monies are spent here: on salaries, benefits, the educational program, campus upgrades, utilities, and the like.

Our board is composed of three individuals who are associated with Phu My Hung and its parent organisation. While they have responsibilities around the world in the many projects they are involved in, their close ties to our founders, Lawrence S. Ting and Ferdinand Tsien, create a special bond between them and the school.

Travel permitting, our board chair, Ms. Gayle Tsien, will be on campus this Friday. I am eager to show her the changes that happened over the summer. The real value of this school, though, is what happens in the classroom. If you see Gayle and me on Friday afternoon, please approach us so that I can introduce you to her.

Sincerely,

Mark