THE AMERICAN SCHOOL FOUNDATION, A.C.

May 31, 2018

BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES

Proprietary Trustees Present Proprietary Trustees Absent

Thurston French Hamer Pushee John Santa Maria Otazúa
Leonardo Schlesinger Rosa Luisa Marentes Dávila de
Mark McCoy Macdonald Pisinger
Aliki Botton de Elias Maria Novales-Flamarique
Eric Flohr
Frances Elizabeth Ward Patton de Huttanus
Joan Danielle Liechty Singleton
Directors at Large Present
Cesar Buenrostro Moreno
George Gelman
Patricio Gutiérrez Tommasi
Andrea Hernández Velasco
John Serrano
Elected Trustees Present
Ernesto González Garfias
Troy Hatch
Carl Koller Lucio
Also Present
Paul David Williams Huster
Diego Zaragoza Tejas
Silvia Núñez Amador
Nicolás Santacruz Londoño
Elisa Aguirre Tovar
Rachel Dillon (For point 1 in the Agenda)

Agenda
1. Post-Graduation Plans: Class of 2018- Rachel Dillon
2. Approval of the Minutes from the March 22, 2018
3. Board Chair Report
4. Executive Director’s Report
5. Governance Committee Report
6. Finance and Investment Committee Report
• Vote Item: Admission Fee Increase
• Vote Item: Use of estimated surplus 2017-2018 School Year
• Vote item: 3.304.2 Diversity Students, Financial Aid, Fees and Discounts
• Vote Item: 5.504 Full Time Employee Discount Policy
7. Institutional Advancement Report
8. Building and Grounds Committee
9. Technology Committee

Once quorum was established, Mr. Thurston French Hamer Pushee, from now on Mr. Hamer, called
the meeting to order at 5:45 pm.

1. Post-Graduation Plans: Class of 2018- Rachel Dillon

• Ms. Dillon started her presentation giving three examples of different senior students, their
GPA, AP/IB, SAT scores and their U.S. College applications vs. acceptances, showing how
each case is different and particular.
• She made a presentation on the post-graduation plans for the class of 2018, the percentages
of students attending college or spending a gap year, as well as their career preferences.
• 27 students applied to multiple regions (to Mexican and non-Mexican universities. Their final
decision was made depending on personal situations.
• The attendance to Non- U.S. / Non- Mexican Universities will be in Asian, Canadian and
European Universities.
• For the trends worth mentioning, Ms. Dillon stated that:
o Academically strong, high need international applicants not accepted as much as in the
past
o Gap year to get residency; financial concerns and creativity is a new trend
o New popular locations: Pacific northwest, IE and The Netherlands, Public Schools in
California, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Ohio State, Washington.
• The College Counseling Plans for 2018-2019 include:
- College topics per quarter per grade
- Consolidated College Fair
- Maia Learning to replace Naviance
- College “Nights”
- Counselor concern letters
- Support for Med students
- Financial Aid counseling focus
- 200+ seniors
• Ms. Elias stated that, US teacher, Rubén Martinez, organized a vocational test for seniors and
juniors staying in Mexico, which was very supportive for students.
• It was stated the vocational counseling could be reinforced for US students.
• Ms. Dillon stated that, for college acceptances, transcripts are more important than GPAs.

2. Approval of the minutes from the March 22, 2018

• Ms. Elias moved to approve the minutes from March 22 and Mr. Buenrostro seconded. The
minutes were approved unanimously.

3. Board Chair Report

• Mr. Hamer presented his report, mentioning that, from a financial perspective, and despite of
the political and economic turmoil of the past year, the school remains in a healthy financial
position.
• The Governance Committee has done a great job on preparing the amendments to By-Laws,
in order to continue adopting the Best Practices of Non-Profit Boards, as well as completing
the Mexican Tax law requirements. Such amendments have been presented and approved by
the Board of Trustees, and ratified by the Foundation members during the last Annual Meeting.
• This school year, community members showed great interest in participating on both, Board
and Committee levels. The Governance Committee put forth and the BoT approved, a motion
to limit the number of terms a board member can serve.
• For the Master Building Plan, it was stated that during the last Board Meeting and after an
extensive period of evaluation, the Board voted to ratify its original vote of approval, and the
project will continue forward on the tasks of obtaining necessary permits and reviewing the
costs of the final projects.
• After the Executive Director’s decision to retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year, the
process to find a successor kicked off in September, over 70 candidates were interviewed, only
6 of them were presented to the ASF Search Committee for a formal interview, eventually two
of them traveled to Mexico and visited the school and met with different groups of our
community.
• In December 2017 Mr. Mark Iver Sylte and ASF came to an agreement to become our new
Executive Director as of July 1st, 2018.
• During his last trip to Mexico, the Transition Committee established with him a transition plan
as follows:
1. Develop ASF Strategic Plan
§ 1st 100-day plan
§ 5-year plan
2. Administration and Evaluation program for Executive Team
§ Dashboard (what does success look like?)
3. Evaluate and make recommendations to College Counseling and Admission
Programs
4. Describe Relationship with BoT
§ How do we help you succeed?
§ How do we structure BoT meetings?
5. Communication Plan
§ How do we consistently communicate the school’s goals and values?
o Including expectations of our community (Philanthropy (giving back),
Privilege has responsibility)
§ How do we manage and incorporate digital / social networks into our curriculum?
• He finally recognized those Board Members leaving, Ms. Aliki Elias, Ms. Joan Liechty, Mr. Eric
Flohr and Mr. George Gelman and welcomed those joining for next school year.
• Ms. Elias presented new Board Members, Mr. Carl Koller, Mr. Ernesto González Garfias and
Mr. Troy Hatch, who attended the meeting. She also mentioned that the fourth member will be
Mr. Thomas Favret, taking Mr. Flohr’s seat, but arriving in early August to Mexico. Ms.
Novales-Flamarique and Mr. Santa Maria were reelected to continue serving on the BoT.
• Finally, he thanked and recognized Mr. Williams for the remarkable work and dedication to
ASF.

4. ED Report
• Mr. Williams started his presentation with the Admission Enrollment Report as of May 29,
2018, stating there has been less drops than last year.
• If all students (94) to be tested in summer would be accepted and would enroll, in the case of
US, the potential enrollment would be over the maximum division limit of 768 students vs. a
possible 792.
• For the US Commencement, he mentioned it took place in the WEC for first time and 180
students graduated. The event ran as planned.
• It was stated that during graduation ceremony; more than a half of the class were old timers.
• Mr. Williams stated that, after a discussion with Mr. Mark Sylte regarding interim leadership
positions, they agreed to ratify Mr. Diego Zaragoza as Director of Academic Affairs, and Mr.
Jordan Maas as the Head of Lower School.
• Mr. Williams presented the 2017-18 ASF Human Capital Climate Survey results, emphasizing
that several areas of the school have a “less than positive view” of ASF as a whole, including
MS, Technology and the grouping of Admission, Communications and Institutional
Advancement.
• All directors and division heads have worked together to develop action plans to identify areas
for improvement and how they will be addressed.
• For the results of the SAIS survey, Mr. Williams stated it evaluates the school as a whole
among different stockholders.
• He showed the chart of Net Promoter Scores 2014-2017, as well as the graph comparing
Promoter vs. Passive vs. Detractors among different community groups.
• Mr. Zaragoza is organizing for next week, meetings per division in order to analyze and
determine the action plan.
• It was stated the student participation number is low, only 28%, that number is not
representative in a survey like this.
• It was clarified how groups are classified, i.e., if somebody is an alumnus, parent and Board
member, the instruction is to answer the survey in the smallest group, in this case, Board
member.
• For the SEP Update, Mr. Williams stated there will be changes in SEP when the government
changes on December 1, 2018.
• A possible law suit from a senior parent who was separated from the school for plagiarism and
cheating on an IB assignment. The consequence was removing her from the full IB diploma
program and will only get her individual IB certificates. She did not participate in capping nor
graduation ceremonies.
• The parent was very upset about this situation and, brought to the table a negative experience
with an older son six years ago. He has threatened ASF with a legal suit for discrimination.
• The school has contacted its lawyers in order to get advice on the matter. At this point, the
school has not heard again from the parent.
• Mr. Williams explained another case, a 10th Grade student who has been on academic
probation in the past and now, after three probation periods, he has been asked not to reenroll.
• At the Athletics Gala, the student was recognized as the most improved basketball player. The
basketball coach recommended the parent approach Mr. Hamer to reconsider the case.
• According to the school’s policy, he is not allowed to re-enroll for next school year.
• For calendars, Mr. Hamer asked Ms. Aguirre to send the electronic invitations for Board and
Committee Meetings to all participants, for the entire 2018-2019 school year.
• Mr. Gutiérrez suggested having a meeting between Board members and the new Executive
Director, before the first Board Meeting of 2018-19.
• For the IB Self-Study, Mr. Zaragoza stated the K-12 report is complete.
• He stated the visit will be in September and there will be a training for Board Members, in order
to understand how IB works and how they could support the school. One of the points of the
review is the 2018 Board Training on IB
• Ms. Elias strongly recommended those Board Members not attending the training not
participate in the interviews with IB representatives, due to the importance of the visit.
• Mr. Zaragoza also presented the main areas for review
o Strengthen counseling integration into curriculum K-12
o Build an intentional vertical alignment protocol for academics and social development
o Identify language support needs K-12
o Build differentiation capacity to reach all learners
• For the faculty training, he stated at the beginning of the school year, there will be a survey
administered to faculty in order to identify strengths and let the strongest members train their
peers.
• It was also stated a faculty member, Dr. Adam Smith, has been recruited for the Community
Service position.

5. Governance Committee
• Mr. Williams stated the modifications to bylaws were unanimously approved at the May
17th, Foundation Meeting.
• New members to the Foundation were approved as well as the recommended candidates
for the BoT seats.
• It was stated it is important for trustees to attend the annual Foundation meeting, that will
be held on May 16, 2019.
6. Finance and Investment
• Ms. Núñez presented the Financial Investment Report as of April 30, 2018.
• She then presented the Financial Statement as of April 30, 2018.
• Mr. McCoy presented the Vote Item: Admission Fee Increase
He stated a task force was created in the Finance Committee for determining the possible
increase in the Admission Fee as well as payment options. The fee was also compared to
other schools such as ASF Monterrey, Greengates, Humanitree and ASF Guadalajara and
other in Latin America.
Mr. McCoy presented the rational of the increase.

• Ms. Liechty moved to approve it and Mr. Flohr seconded. All votes were in favor. The
Admission Fee Increase was unanimously approved.
• The need to maintain the same family profile was stated because the increase is high, so it
is possible to attract other types of families that may not support the school’s mission and
vision.

• Ms. Núñez presented the Vote Item: Use of estimated surplus 2017-2018 School Year
 Ms. Liechty moved to approve, Ms. Elias seconded. All votes were in favor. The Use of
Projected Surplus 2017-2018 was unanimously approved.

• Vote Item: 3.402.2 Diversity Students, Financial Aid, Fees and Discounts
Mr. Williams explained the proposed policy since it had not previously existed.
The objective is to have a policy regarding fees and discounts and financial aid for Diversity
students, on the Admission Fees, Registration and Tuition; and, on a case by case basis,
analyze the possibility of awarding the following discounts, if requested: Transportation,
Extended Learning and Summer School.
Ms. Huttanus moved to approve, Mr. Gutierrez seconded. All votes were in favor. The
3.402.2 Diversity Students, Financial Aid, Fees and Discounts Policy was unanimously
approved.

• Vote Item: 5.504 Board Policy Review – Full Time Employees

Mr. Williams explained the proposed modifications to the policy and clarified it does not
include trips.
Ms. Huttanus moved to approve, Ms. Liechty seconded. All votes were in favor. The 5.504
Board Policy Review – Full Time Employees was unanimously approved.

• Mr. McCoy informed the Finance Committee decided to move forward on the Forensic
Audit consultant, the committee chose Salles-Sainz who are considered the best option.
• He also stated the school is ready to move forward and is seeing if Mr. Koller would be in
charge of or lead the task force and the scope of the audit. Mr. Koller stated it is a joint
Governance and Finance Committees task.
7. IA Report
• Ms. Huttanus presented the funds raised as of May 2018 and stated it was a great year for
fundraising.

8. B&G Report
• Mr. Buenrostro presented an update on the ECC-LS Project and the Capital Projects 2018-
2019 (Summer 2018).
• For the ECC-LS project, the school is working to complete the urban impact study, as well
as the environmental impact study, both for the licensing process.
• The project costs have been reviewed and GAYA will present the updated base cost on
June 19, at the last B&G meeting.
• The next steps include continuing with the Licensing process, reviewing the Owner Rep
Companies and Reducing ECC-LS project cost.
• Mr. Buenrostro presented the Capital and Maintenance Projects for 2018-19.
• He stated the Concrete Slabs project in the Transportation Center will be fully completed
during the summer.

9. Technology Report
• Mr. Serrano stated Maker Week was held from April, 3-5, included Student Workshops,
Parent Talks, a Community Expo and closed with the Tech@Nite.
• The Maker Week included 114 sessions and 2,621 students were served (some of them in
multiple sessions).
• Faculty was very excited about the event and shared their opinions on what they liked most
during the event.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:36 pm