ISI Blog

08.16.10

Welcome to the 2010-2011 School Year

Dear Parents and Friends of ISI

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year! I would like to say a very special welcome to our new students and their families, and to the new colleagues who will be joining us.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer. I had the good fortune to attend the International Spanish Academies conference held in northern Spain in June at the invitation of the Spanish Ministry of Education. ISI is one of only about 100 schools throughout the US to be accorded this prestigious title by the Spanish authorities, and one of only a handful of private schools. I was pleased to observe that ISI’s model of bilingual immersion Spanish meets with great approval from the Spanish authorities. I also had the chance to visit South Carolina with my wife and learn a great deal more about the history of the US, as well as enjoy the beach and the sights of this region.

But now it is back-to-school time! Here is a brief update of some of the most important points.

Enrollment

I’m delighted to report an increase in enrollment. Our current confirmed enrollment for the whole school is 554.  This is a more than 4% increase compared with the same time last year.

Staffing

At the end of last school year I informed you about colleagues who were leaving ISI. During the summer our High School Spanish and Humanities teacher Mr. Francisco Hidalgo informed us of his decision to accept a post at another school. We wish him well in his newposition.  After an intensive search carried out with the assistance of our Spanish Education Advisor via the International Spanish Academies network we are pleased to announce that we have hired Ms. Carmen Permuy to take over Mr. Hidalgo’s classes.

Also during the vacation period Mr. Christian Gautier, one of our MiddleSchool science teachers, decided to follow his doctor’s advice and resign his position at ISI for medical reasons. We wish him all the best, and hope to see him from time to time. We are pleased that ISI parent and former interim science teacher Ms. Deborah Clarke will take over Mr. Gautier’s responsibilities from August.

When I last wrote to you we were also still confirming some appointments. We are now fully staffed for the new school year, and at the risk of repeating information I gave you before the summer I will give you a complete list of our new appointments:

Lower School Teachers:

Ms Nichol Francis will be our Grade 4 English teacher.  Originally from California, she has taught for several years in East Africa and is experienced in the IB Primary Years Programme.

Mr Javier Solanas joins us from Zaragoza in Spain to teach our Grade 2 Spanish class.

Ms Sihan Shang joins us to teach our combined 3-year-old and Pre-K Mandarin class.  Ms Shang is from PR China and among other qualifications has a Masters in Education from Columbia University.

Ms Marie-Claude Schanefelt returns in a full-time capacity to teach a section of Grade 1 French.

Mr Robby Kongolo is taking over as a Pre-K French teacher after previously having worked as an assistant teacher for us.

Teaching Assistants

Ms Elsa Akle joins us as a Spanish pre-elementary assistant.

Ms Joëlle Melki joins us as a pre-elementary French Assistant.

We are also pleased to welcome back Ms Gwenaelle Stanly as a pre-elementary French assistant.

Upper School:

Mr Loïc André will be teaching a range of French courses, including French Humanities in Grades 6&7, and IB Diploma Language A.  Mr André is from France but has worked at St Richards School here in Indianapolis for several years.

Ms Deborah Clarke will teach Grade 6 and 7 sciences at our Blackwelll building. Ms Clarke hails from the UK and is a chemistry specialist.

Ms Carmen Permuy is joining us from Spain.  She is qualified in humanities and Spanish, and has experience of working in schools in the US.

Ms Yi Lin Li (Elaine) is joining us from PR China courtesy of the Confucius Institute and Hanban as an exchange teacher, and will be teaching Mandarin to selected grades in the Upper School.

Mr Andrew Mazur has recently completed his teaching certification with a specialism in mathematics, and will be teaching math in the Middle School grades, as well as some Humanities.

Ms Mercy Trangia is originally from the Philippines, and has taught IB Mathematics at international schools in the Philippines, Turkey  and Belgium.

I am confident that our new colleagues will further strengthen our faculty tea and add to the wonderful diversity that we offer to your children and the ISI community.  Please make them welcome!

Following the departure of Blackwell counselor Ms Renza Leich we have decided to extend the responsibilities of our other two counselors to cover the grade levels at Blackwell, so that we have an Upper and Lower School counselor.  Accordingly, Ms Lia Stallworth will work across all the Lower School grade levels, and Ms Nicole Detrick will work across all Grades from 6 through 12.

Class of 2010

Please join me in congratulating our Class of 2010 on their excellent college placements. The class of 2010 will be attending the following colleges:

  • Augustana College
  • Bradley University
  • Butler University
  • Concordia University (Canada).
  • DePauw University
  • Franklin College
  • Haverford College
  • Indiana University at Bloomington (5 students)
  • London School of Economics (UK)
  • Loyola University Chicago
  • Miami University, Oxford
  • Millikin University
  • Northwestern University
  • Purdue University (2 students)
  • Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
  • Sheffield University (UK)
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of St. Andrews (UK)
  • Wesleyan University

ISI Bus Service

Our bus service bringing children from some of the northern residential districts will be starting on the first day of school. We have contracted with Miller Transportation for this service, and we are ensuring that we have a chaperone on each bus in addition to the driver, as well as an ISI employee dedicated to monitoring the service and providing excellent customer support.

Some parents have commented about the duration of the return journey in the afternoons, and while we agree that this is a long time to be sitting on a bus, it arose because of the way in which the bus company calculates its costs, and the extended afternoon that many students face with their extracurricular activities.The great majority of the cost is in fact for the morning service.

Nevertheless, our aim is to provide excellent service at a reasonable price, so we will continue to review this situation very carefully as the semester gets underway.

Here’s looking forward to a great start to the new school year!

Best wishes,

David Garner

Head of School

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