The next School Board meeting will take place on

Wednesday, August 25, 2010, at 18:00 in the School Boardroom

Agenda for August 25 Meeting - under construction

Minutes of School Board Meeting, June 7, 2010

The AIS School Board comprises seven representatives, four of whom are required by the by-laws to be affiliated with the US Embassy. The School Board meets each month and has general policy-making authority, with very specific responsibilities for the financial planning for the school.

The School Board is elected by the parents each year at the annual general meeting held in April. Board members serve staggered, two-year terms. The by-laws require that the outgoing Board nominate (to the parents) individuals for membership on the Board. The by-laws also provide a very simple procedure by which any school parent can be recommended for membership and stand for the annual elections. The relevant section of the by-laws is distributed to all the parents each year, one month prior to the annual general meeting.

The School Board meets monthly to conduct business in open session. Such meetings are announced beforehand in the school’s newsletter. Parents are welcome to attend. Minutes of all open meetings are available for examination in the Superintendent’s office. Confidential matters regarding personnel and contract issues are addressed in private executive session. 

The roles of the School Board and of the Superintendent have been established as policy. The School Board's major responsibility is in the areas of finances and planning. The Board approves a detailed budget each year and must approve thereafter any budget modifications. The School Board hires the Superintendent, and takes a major role in negotiating the teachers' contract. The Board also plays a primary role in the planning and conception of all major capital improvements in the school. In accordance with its by-laws, the School Board delegates major responsibility for educational policy making and administrative actions to the Superintendent.

The Superintendent has the authority and discretion to make most of the strictly educational decisions with respect to curriculum, staffing, student regulations and activities, and special services. Overall responsibility relating to the hiring and retention of school personnel has been given to the Superintendent.

Each year the Superintendent presents to the Board an outline of the major new objectives, directions or changes that will be pursued in the coming year. The Board gives its general approval to these goals and objectives, with suggestions and modifications. Then, over the course of the year, the Superintendent reports back to the Board with respect to progress in each of these areas.During the course of the year, the Superintendent brings to the School Board educational matters that he feels are critical to the school's success, of strong community interest, or of major concern from the point of view of public and community relations.

Within this general frame of operation, the School Board may and does, at any time its members feel appropriate, raise issues regarding any and all aspects of the school's operations and policies. For many years the school board has maintained a consistent policy whereby any parent may bring concerns, suggestions or ideas to the board at its regular monthly meeting. The procedure is a simple one: parents need only contact the Superintendent no later than two days prior to the board meeting, indicating the matter to be discussed and arranging a time to appear before the board.

The board strongly encourages parents at all times to bring concerns, problems, or situations that trouble them directly to the staff or administration of AIS for resolution. Should parents wish further consideration of any matter that is decided by the staff or the administration, they may bring that matter directly to the board. Or, parents may at any time bring such situations directly to the Parent/Teacher Association.

School Board Members

School Board Member Biographies

Board Policy Manual

Corporate Board

The members of the Corporation shall be the members of the School Board and the Ambassador, Counselor for Public Affairs, and Consul General of the Embassy of the United States of America in Israel, or their designees.   In addition, distinguished persons of the local community and others may be selected by resolution of the Corporation for specific terms.  The officers of the School Board shall also serve as the officers of the Corporation.  Membership in the Corporation of members of the School Board shall expire at the conclusion of their term on the School Board.  A majority of the members of the Corporation including four members of the School Board represent a quorum.  Voting may be by proxy or by correspondence. (Extract from By-Laws)

Corporate Board Members

Name	Phone # Work	E-Mail
Ambassador James B. Cunningham	03 519 758303 510 8093 (fax)	This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Virginia Baldwin)
Andrew Parker - Consul General US Embassy, Tel Aviv	03 519-767103 516 0315 (fax)	This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Bonnie Gutman -Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv	03-5103821/8965003-5103832 (fax)	This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Eysar Horesh	09-950-9502054 560 0480	This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Bambi Betts	No telephone	This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Biographies of Corporate Board Members

 Ambassador Cunningham has spent much of his career working on European and security affairs, with broad experience in multilateral diplomacy. After early tours in Stockholm, Washington, Rome and the U.S. Mission to NATO, he served as Chief of Staff to NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner. He advised the Secretary General on all NATO issues in the context of the unification of Germany and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, and on the management of the 1,200 member international staff.

Just after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Ambassador Cunningham became Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the UN. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Director of the State Department's Office of European Security and Political Affairs, with responsibility for many aspects of U.S. policy toward Europe. He served as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Embassy in Rome from 1996 to 1999.

 Ambassador Cunningham was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University, with degrees in political science and psychology. He speaks Italian, French and Spanish. Ambassador Cunningham is the recipient of the Department's Superior, Merit and Performance awards; the National Performance Review's Hammer Award for innovation in government management; and the President's Meritorious Service Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society.

 Released on August 28, 2008

 Eysar Horesh served on the AIS school board as member and Chairperson for seven years as a representative of the community. Prior to her board involvement, Eysar's commitment to the school included an active role in the PTA where she served as room mother, secretary and president. Eysar is a graduate of the American Community School in Tehran and continued her studies at the University of California in San Diego where she received a Bachelor's degree in psychology and philosophy. She is fluent in English, French, Arabic, Persian and Hebrew. Before forfeiting her career to raise a family, Eysar worked as a journalist and radio/TV news broadcaster in Iran. Her personal interests include reading, art, travel and in particular issues relating to child welfare. Eysar is married to George Horesh and is the mother of Andrew and Roxanne, both graduates of AIS.  Eysar has been on the Corporate Board since 2004. 

Margret Ellwanger relocated to Israel from the California Bay Area in 2005 when her husband Russell was appointed CEO of Tower Semiconductor. During her husband’s 27 year career they accepted expatriate positions in The Netherlands, Japan and Singapore interspersed with time in Utah, New Mexico and California. They are the parents of four children who have experienced international schools, home school and highly selective independent schools in the United States. Their oldest son and daughter have graduated from liberal arts colleges in Hawaii and Massachusetts and presently are at the University of California in San Francisco in Dental and Medical School. The second daughter is on leave of absence from Bowdoin College in Maine for an eighteen month Cantonese speaking service assignment in Hong Kong. Britta, the youngest daughter, graduated from AIS last year. Margret has been an active parent in every school community her children attended. Most recently she served on the Board of Trustees at York School in Monterey. Her emphasis was maintaining and increasing academic excellence and community service during a financially difficult phase in the life of the school that added extensive new facilities. Margret holds a B.S. in physics with a minor in mathematics and a Master’s in physics.  She has lived the first twenty five years of her life in Germany where she graduated from High School, attended the Technical University of Munich and investigated phase transitions at Siemens Research Laboratories. She taught physics as an assistant at Brigham Young University in the United States and German at Fuchu Shi Community College in Tokyo, Japan. She has held extensive volunteer positions in a variety of national, international and academic organizations and is a member of Zonta International. She is the co-founder and president of Pillows for Peace, a cottage industry and community development support service dedicated to permanent poverty elimination through economic self reliance.