Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:09:08 +0200
From: romig
Subject: New Campus

Dear All,
I gather the CDG has voted against a La Chât. meeting for parents
similar to the one held yesterday for the staff. Can the PTA organise
this instead? A meeting of this sort is ESSENTIAL before the November
Consultative Assembly so that we can present a coherent and united
front, probably backed by a signed statement. The meeting should be
informative: presentations by staff, administration, Board, justifying
each option from the three important points of view: pedagogical,
financial and practical; then allow for expressions of opinion and
discussion (possibly in smaller groups); with a vote to obtain a
statement of position.
This meeting would also allow for open expression of our concern over
the way in which this issue is being handled by our elected Board
members.

Having today read all three "papers" prepared by the DG's and Mr. Boggs,
I would like to put some more thoughts into the field for discussion:

1. The La Chât. parents and students will be the most affected by a change in the structure of their school,

2. Particularly the French Section students who a. are the most settled in this area; b. have the greatest choice to vote with their feet, having no language barrier to joining local (excellent) private and public schools; c. will find their pre-matu. programme cut in the year before the brevet, which is when they usually make the choice of courses, etc. (i.e. M. Streuhli's suggestion that Saconay 10 - 13 will be of most benefit to the Francophones is clearly open to question); 3. As Mike Lee pointed out in his timely note to the school community, the formula we have now produces the world's best IB results as well as Swiss Romand's best Maturité results... we would need a clear, and very convincingly presented pedagogical argument for the 10 - 13 before we can begin to be convinced that it could work as well as what we have!
4. It is fairly obvious that the main argument for 10 - 13 is financial: the highest fee structure helping pay back investment and, of course, a ready- made student body; the most coherent building requirements; low space requirements as opposed to primary students, therefore more fees per square meter: LGB and Chât. being more or less self financing; taking these high fees out of the La Chât. and LGB account would surely create a strain on their budgets. I have long understood that the stable population of La Chât. has supported the much more fluctuating population of LGB, especially during the "crise".

5. On a long term basis LGB and Chât are both structured to take on 1000 or more students, plus several hundred from Pregny. I gather that the new campus should take up to 1300: I know my math is not as good as Mr. Forrest's (who feels that stopping senoir teaching at Chât. in 2003 will only concern 8th Grade and under: what about the present 9th and 10th who will be in 12th and 13th respectivly?), but the demand will once again outreach the supply: do we then build another senior campus?

6. Some staff members raised the point that the Board has acted in contravention of its own rules: does anyone have access to these and a good enough legal mind to discuss this point rationally?

Philippa