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International School Moshi Letter from the CEO |
December 17, 2008
Dear Parents:
We have finally reached the end of a very long Term One at International School Moshi. Our Sports Weekend where we hosted IST and HOPAC went very well. The visiting teachers spoke highly of how our ISM students behaved and competed. It was great to see so many parents from Moshi and Arusha - and even some from Dar - supporting the students during the weekend. For the first time in recent memory, ISM was victorious over IST in the swimming gala which is a testament to our many new swimmers who have joined us recently. I want to thank the coaches and dance supervisors who gave up their entire weekend to make the festival possible for your children. It was really a lot of fun.
We had a very successful Parent Association AGM at KIA Lodge in November and we have produced our 2007/08 annual report. We have financial data there about last school year which might interest you and can be downloaded from the school website from the Download page at www.ismoshi.org/Download.htm.
ISM Income in 2007/08
As you can see, our not-for-profit school depends almost exclusively upon tuition and boarding fees and 74% of our expenditure is on staffing costs. We have been committed during the past five years to steadily improving our programmes with PYP, MYP and DYP and in maintaining our accreditation status. We have tried to beautify the campuses and also make them much more secure than ever before. In addition we have tried to renovate staff housing, reward staff and upgrade our campus infrastructure. This has meant some painful cost cutting mixed with some creativity, like the introduction of the Visiting Schools Programme. Unfortunately, that was not enough to reverse the declining enrolment.
The Board took early action in 2007/08 to reverse our enrolment decline by temporarily offering free boarding places to new students in certain classes and this did much to raise the enrolment during the 2007/08 school year and gave a much needed boost to our income. We experienced a 28% increase in enrolment on the Moshi Campus this year but the numbers in Arusha have declined slightly. As with other schools in Arusha, we are vulnerable to the inevitable drawdown of families from the UNICTR. Throughout the school our best marketing comes from positive word of mouth from parents of happy children who are getting a great education. Parents have a great opportunity to help the school by telling people about the types of learning experiences their children are getting. Of course, the reverse is also true, if people choose to focus on the inevitable mistakes that happen in any organization. Schools are much like families - perfect ones do not exist.
I trust you will all have a wonderful break with your families. I look forward to meeting everyone in the new year. For those of you celebrating the festival, have a very merry Christmas.
Best regards,
Barry Sutherland
Chief Executive Officer
International School Moshi inspires individuals to be lifelong learners in a global community.