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
