Summary of the Extraordinary Assembly

by Noelia | Mar 23, 2023

Summary of the Extraordinary Assembly

The extraordinary assembly meeting took place this past Thursday, March 16th, 2023 at 4 pm via Zoom and the following items were presented:

1. Welcome – Sonya Danchik (Interim President)

Sonya welcomed families to the assembly meeting and thanked them for their continued support.

2. Fiscal Report – Sonya Danchik (Interim President)

Sonya reported that all members continue to be very committed to their roles and sometimes even beyond their roles, always working for the welfare of the school. The board meets weekly to discuss current happenings at the school, updates from the director, ongoing challenges, and future planning and decision making.

Strategic and financial planning committees that meet weekly to focus on growth, school improvement and future planning. Also there is a fundraising committee to work on generating funds and organizing events for the school.

As always, not only do they remain active on these occasions, but they maintain active communication on a daily basis through a WhatsApp chat to discuss daily/weekly occurrences.

3. Financial Update – David Booth (Treasurer)

The current state of finances, a comparative analysis, and recommendations for the 2023-2024 school year were presented to the Assembly.

Current state:

• Futuro Verde is operating on a significant deficit this year as a result of enrollment numbers lower than expected, macroeconomic factors such as significant inflation and exchange rate fluctuation, unexpected costs around IB and infrastructure, and three years of compressed transition years resulting in lost months of revenues during periods of ongoing fixed costs.
• The team has put in place a plan to address these issues and has been working to ensure the best financial position possible to enter the 2023-2024 school year, having achieved 64% of the goal to date.
• The current finances and budgetary plans are not sustainable, and Futuro Verde has been using its reserves to maintain positive cash flows. The school cannot continue to operate in this manner going forward.
• The team has been working for a number of months to build detailed financial modeling tools that have allowed for the creation of dozens of financial models leveraging multiple different variables. These tools and models allow the school to better understand its current situation as well as enable fiscally responsible and sustainable planning of budgets and ongoing decision making.

Comparative analysis:

• A comparative analysis was conducted through research regarding other IB schools in Costa Rica and on the Peninsula.
• Virtually all of Futuro Verde’s income is derived through tuition and fees, and while Futuro Verde’s enrollment fees are generally on-par with market averages, its tuition averages 40% lower. In some cases, Costa Rican IB annual tuition is more than twice that of Futuro Verde.
• A majority of schools charge additional fees for technology, books and materials, scholarship and capital expenditure funds, medical services, insurance, and more. Futuro Verde does not.
• Futuro Verde offers a very generous sibling policy while a majority of other schools do not.
• In order to be sustainable and manage a fiscally responsible budget, Futuro Verde must make changes to bring its sources of income closer to market.

2023-2024 School Year:

• We have completed the transition to the full International School Year calendar (Northern Hemisphere). Beginning August 1, 2023 and beyond, Futuro Verde’s fiscal year will run from August 1st to July 31st.
• Enrollment will begin April 17th, 2023, and communications will be going out around specific dates and information for new and returning students.
• Tuition will be due beginning August 5, 2023 and families will have the option to pay the annual tuition: annually (with discount), quarterly, or 12 monthly payments.
• The first day of classes will be August 16, 2023, however, it is important that tuition payments are made beginning August 5th in order to ensure positive cash flows.
• The administration and the board presented three options to ensure the financial health, stability, and sustainability of the school beginning August 1st.
  • In all options, there is no increase to enrollment fees and a technology fee will be introduced in order to provide items such as new Chromebooks, LCDs and projectors, and fully featured software licenses.
  • All options allow for an expanded scholarship program to help our families that rely upon it.
  • All options allow for increased teacher training opportunities and a staff cost of living adjustment to salary to help with inflation and the growing costs of living here on the Peninsula.
  • All options introduce an updated sibling policy that will impact NEW families only. Current families will continue to enjoy the current discounting.
  • All options allow Futuro Verde to invest in strong and experienced staff and leadership as well as required infrastructure improvements.
  • All options allow for the building back of reserve funds to approximately 2-3% of revenues (toward a long term goal of accruing 10-15%).
  • Depending upon enrollment numbers, these options allow for varying degrees of expansion and improvement with items such as class offerings, facility improvements, educational materials, and additional building investments.
  • Each option introduces a tuition increase of:
    • Option A: CRC50,000/ month
    • Option B: CRC60,000/ month
    • Option C: CRC70,000/ month
• The Board’s recommendation to the Association is Option B, which allows Futuro Verde to accomplish the vast majority of its objectives while financially protecting against situations of lower enrollment numbers and taking steps to build back a healthy reserve.

Voting results

• Option B:
  • No increase to the enrollment fee.
  • Sibling policy for NEW families: 5% 1st sibling, 10% 2nd, 15% for 3+
  • New Annual Technology fee of CRC40,000
  • Monthly Tuition increase of +CRC60,000/ month

4. Vacancies on the Board of Directors

During the assembly, Sonya presented the vacant positions on the board and the candidates for each of those positions. She introduced the candidates, Aida Rodriguez for vocal and Kate Schenone Macgregor for secretary.

Voting results

• Approved Secretary – Kate Schenone MacGregor
• Approved Vocal – Aida Rodriguez

Please write to junta@futuro-verde.org if you have any questions.

Thank you for your continued support,

Futuro Verde Board of Directors

Teacher Appreciation Day

by Noelia | Feb 22, 2023

Teacher Appreciation Day

Teachers at Futuro Verde are a small community of kind and loving humans committed to education, and are always supporting each other and helping each other out. This year, for the first time, we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Day and Thanksgiving together and we shifted the focus from the American tradition of Thanksgiving, to show love and appreciation for our staff. We did one personal reunion with each group and their crew teacher to work on thanksgiving and one big event with the school to celebrate teachers. The outcome was very positive for students and teachers.

During previous years, Futuro Verde used to focus more on Thanksgiving day and appreciate teachers along with every other positive aspect in life, while the students would enjoy the wonderful meals prepared for the occasion. However, this year the committee focused on doing something for teacher appreciation and we thought about the student’s doing presentations for the teachers, such as dances, poems and music recitals. While I went around asking teachers what they would like to do for teachers day, they mentioned that they wanted to relax and be able to enjoy the event. This comment from the kindergarten teachers shifted my idea into doing something where teachers could be involved and really enjoy it. Consequently, I came up with the idea of creating a teachers’ game where students participated as organizers and audience.

The day started with administration sending out a video of the teachers since the first day and giving out presents for each teacher. Through out the day food were coming into the teachers office to celebrate our bid day. Student’s were giving presents and hugs to their teachers too. The first hour of the event was dedicated for thanksgiving through an intimate activity with each group, their crew teacher and a guest teacher. During this hour, students did activities to show their appreciation about diverse aspects of life, such as family, friends, school and others. This was an opportunity for students to reflect about their lives and share their appreciation to others. In the next hour we did the Teacher’s game, where teachers previously signed up for specific games that they wanted to play, such as musical chairs, sign if you know it, sack race and tuck of war. The bigger student’s were involved in the organization: IB student’s took care and entertained kindergarten students, 10th grade set up the games and were judges, 9th grade helped organized all the sitting arrangements for the audience and 8th and 7th grade helped putting all the resources back and cleaning after the event.

The event was a complete success. The students laugh and enjoy cheering for their teachers, watching their teachers having fun and being children for one hour. The teachers gave great feedback, they were able to participate in games where they actually wanted and got prices if they won. Moreover, through the event administrators were giving out ruffle prices involving a range of relaxing experiences. Many teachers were so happy and please that they ask for the event to become an annual tradition. The day really felt as an appreciation day for teacher from beginning to end and made us deeply feel appreciated by administration and students.

More importantly, it made us feel like we belong to a friendly and loving community. 

RAP 2022

by Noelia | Jan 12, 2023

The Respect-Love-Peace arts festival was held on Wednesday, December 14. 

The RAP event was on the playground with an outdoor amphitheater, so students were encouraged to bring picnic-style tablecloths to enjoy the performances in comfort. This is an activity that will be attended by the entire Futuro Verde community of parents, students and staff, in order to enjoy the students’ end-of-year artistic presentations before leaving for vacation.

Each grade has prepared, together with their Crew Teacher, a special presentation, including choreography, poetry, drama and music by our talented student body. Some students will participate with solo, duo and trio presentations, performing live songs that they have been preparing with great care.

For this, the RAP committee is especially grateful to the Music and Theater department for the guidance and preparation of our students in the area of stage talent. 

Performances will be separated by a lunch period from 11:30 to 12:30, and will continue until dismissal time. 

We remind you to bring sun and insect protection, and comfortable clothing as this will be an outdoor event, taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather ahead.

New IB Coordinator!

by Noelia | Jan 11, 2023

The five-year evaluation is a formal assessment conducted by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB) every five years in all IB schools around the world. The main objective is to verify that IB programs are being developed correctly and according to IB program standards and practices. The evaluation process is described by the IB as “an opportunity to pause, to reflect on what is working and what deserves further attention,” to look at the functioning of the school as a whole, “to see how the school is doing. The five-year evaluation allows for a reassessment of the school’s internal processes, “reconnecting with the school community” and refocusing on the mission of Futuro Verde, which is “to foster students to be reflective learners who, through inquiry and critical thinking, develop the knowledge necessary to address global issues related to social justice, intercultural relations and the environment.”

The program evaluation requires the preparation of the school for a preliminary review of documents, which include compliance with the school’s mission/vision, school strategy, admissions policies, inclusion policies, behavioral policies, as well as all IB curricula taught at the school, among others. Following the preliminary review, the school must complete a self-evaluation questionnaire which is an exhaustive and very detailed process of reflection by all members of the community on the concrete applications of the program and an action plan for the development of measures that need improvement. At the end of these two stages the IB sends its delegates to visit the school to get a clearer idea of how the IB program is working in the school context. During this evaluation process everyone involved in the IB program: parents, students and teachers must be willing to reflect on what it means to be part of the IB world, demonstrate knowledge of how the program works and show a strong commitment to student learning through the IB curriculum.

For my part, this is an enriching process that, by encouraging us to reflect on what we have been working on for the past 5 years, will help us to improve. Therefore, I feel very satisfied to have the opportunity to lead the process, because from this role I have the possibility to provide guidance and support to colleagues, students and parents, solving their doubts or needs regarding the immersion or progress in the IB program.