AASCA Principals’ Conference

April 14 and 15, 2007

 

 

Agenda of Meeting:

 

Friday, April 13, 6:30	Informal Welcome Dinner
Saturday, April 14, 8:00am -12:00pm	Professional Development Workshops
Saturday, April 14, 1:00-4:00	AASCA Business AASCA Website Athletic Directors Meeting Reports of AASCA Events
Saturday, April 14, 8:00-10:00pm	Issues to Discuss and Recommend      Calendar of Events for 2007-8
Sunday, April 15, 8:00-12:00	Preliminary Calendar for 2008-2009 Election of Officers Community Service Projects
Sunday, April 15, 1:30-4:00	Workshop On Evaluation and Supervision
Monday, April 16	Departure

       

AASCA PRINCIPALS’ CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

 

Costa Rica

American International School of Costa Rica                             Neli Santiago

Country Day School                                                                             Gloria Doll

Lincoln School                                                                          Charles Benavage

Marian Baker School                                                                           -no representative-

 

El Salvador

American School of El Salvador                                                            Ramon Morales

International School of San Salvador                                                     -no representative-

Panamerican School                                                                             Eric Quijano

 

Guatemala

American School of Guatemala                                                 Fabio Corvaglia

Colegio Americana del Sur                                                                   Deborah Revolvorio

Colegio Decroly                                                                                   Marth Monzon

Colegio Maya                                                                                       Maribel Maldonado

Colegio Interamericano                                                             -no representative-

 

Honduras

American School of Tegucigalpa                                                           Matthew Blake

Escuela Internacional Sampedrana                                                        Tom Litecky

Mazapan School                                                                                   Donna Dixon

 

Nicaragua

American Nicaraguan School                                                                Joseph Azmeh

Lincoln International Academy                                                  -no representative-

 

Panama

International School of Panama                                                 Dennis Dunn

Balboa Academy                                                                                  Rita Sosa

 

 

AASCA BUSINESS MEETING

 

Business Meeting moved up to Saturday afternoon so that some Principals could leave by Sunday 2:00pm.   The workshops planned for Saturday afternoon would be moved to Sunday afternoon.

 

Welcome:

Ramon Morales, Upper School Principal from Escuela American of El Salvador welcomed the participants.

Ramon Morales recommended that one of the goals for the year should be to maintain more constant and continuous communication with each other. This could include a Blog/Principals Forum/ Chat /communication with AASCA Principals to share questions and concerns.

Other suggestions made: That Principals of AASCA schools in same country seek opportunities to meet informally on a regular basis-Saturday morning coffee gatherings.

The President noted that all participants need to plan to remain at the AASCA Principals meeting the entire time allocated to prevent from any disruptions to an already planned agenda.                   

 

AASCA Website:

The group was very thankful and appreciative of the hard work and effort given by Tita Haeussler, Maribel Maldonado, and the Maya School of Guatemala to develop and maintain the AASCA website.

Address:  - http://www.aascaonline.net/

Maribel Maldonado, Maya School of Guatemala briefed all participants on the AASCA website.

• She requested Feedback and recommendations to place on AASCA site. 
• Community Service Award information has been placed on line.
• All information requests from the website manager would be C.c. to Principals.
• After each AASCA event pictures /information will be placed on line. 

 

Recommendation: 

• Information will be directly asked from the Principals.
• Links to be created: For All directors/ Principal contact information will appear as a group.
• Minutes will be placed on the AASCA Web.

Discussion of the Athletic Director Meeting:

The Minutes of the Athletic Directors meeting were presented to be discussed and approved by the Principals.  They have been placed Online.

• The AASCA Tournament pledge will appear on the webpage.

• Principals voted not to approve the minutes but acknowledge that they were read while not necessarily agreeing with all points discussed.

Discussion on the Recommendations made by the Athletic Directors and the vote to approve or not approve each one of them:

1. Increase and standardize the maximum number of players among the Small Schools and Large Schools: 12 for Basketball and Volleyball, and 18 for Soccer.

Small School Vote-      3 to increase / 5 to not increase numbers of players

All schools Vote -         8 to increase/ 7 to not increase numbers of players

Recommendation Approved by All Schools but Not Approved by Small Schools alone.

The small schools AD and the Principals expressed their concern with the amount injuries during the games due to not having more players.  

2. The Athletic Directors’ meet every year instead of every two years.

Votes:    4 for every year / 11 for every other year

     Principals suggested that Athletic Directors should all participate in the AASCA events.

Recommendation that AD meet every year: Not Approved.

Recommend that they meet every other year and choose an AASCA event in the spring to meet as Small Schools or Large Schools, at the beginning of this last AASCA event of the year.

3. The Athletic Directors’ Coordinator should have the opportunity to present and justify all recommendations formulated during the Principals’ Meeting. 

Recommendation: Not Approved

·        Counter-Recommendation made by the Principals: 

The host school of the AD will present their recommendations at the Principal

Conferences.    Vote: 7 against  8 in favor

Recommendation: Approved

    4. Increase fee to $400 for large schools to cover expenses.

       Recommendation: Not Approved

·        Counter-Recommendation:   Increase to $350 for large schools

         Large Schools 7 in favor \ 0 opposed

        All schools 12 in favor and 2 opposed

         Recommendation: Approved

5. Take into consideration the proposed long-term calendar for athletic events presented by the Athletic Directors for the next years.

Recommendation: Not Approved

6. That the host school perform the draw for the AASCA tournament’s group formation   at least two weeks before the event and with the attendance of at least two AASCA   Athletic Directors.

Recommendation: Approved                        Vote:  14 in favor /1 opposed 

7. Continue to Support Invitational Tournaments.

             Recommendation: Approved                       Vote:  15 in favor 0 opposed

     Addendum: The Principals recommend that invitations should go out to all schools on first come first serve basis for selection of teams.

8. Support athletic exchanges of individual sports for student-athletes: track and field, table tennis, squash, golf and swimming.

The principals do not officially support adding any additional sports to the calendar. However the principals recommend that any school who would be sponsoring such an event consider contacting individual schools to invite.

Review of AASCA Events:

Leadership Conference: (Sept. 21-24, 2006) Hosted by The Panamerican School of San Salvador. Well organized. Trip to ESEN was beneficial to students. Guest speaker brought in from US was well received. Exceeded budget because many schools did not participate NOT that the guest speaker was so expensive. Therefore, had to request AASCA funds to recoup this money. AASCA limit is eight students per school.  One school thought originally that they could send more students. It is recommended that the host school send out reminders regarding this event at the end of each school year. AASCA Social Service Award recipient schools were never given their plaques (plaques were never sent to the host school).  Also, the awarding of the award should be scheduled in the agenda of the conference and made to be special for the students.

Small School Basketball Tournament: (Oct. 25-29, 2006) Hosted by The Marian Baker School of San Jose, Costa Rica. Well organized. Seven teams present. Request made to allow a local non-AASCA school to round out eight schools was denied. At three different venues; two would have been better.

Large School Basketball: (Nov. 8-12, 2006) Hosted by the American School of El Salvador. Seven schools present; a total of 13 teams. Only Lincoln School of Costa Rica did not attend. Brackets were decided three weeks before the tournament at AASCA AD Mtg.

The tournament was tense throughout because of close games. EIS player suspended by EIS for one game for taking off his shirt in front of the EA fans, for which he apologized to EA director. EIS AD later pointed out error in failing to cross brackets correctly. Protest and meeting was held. Apologies were made by EA but decision was made to go with brackets as they were. Incident later during girls EA and AST  re. time noted by AST coach. Coach later submitted protest because AST AD was at hospital. During boys’ final (EA vs. CAG) heckling took place by both sides. EA won after being awarded an additional free throw. Protest lodged by CAG.

CAG and Decroly, and the Boys EIS teams did not attend the awards ceremony. Only EIS girls’ team attended in order to receive their award; their boys’ team remained on the bus. The American School of Tegucigalpa did attend the awards ceremony arriving rather late in the evening.

CAG Principal disagrees that it wasn't only the refereeing in the final game that resulted in CAG not participating in the closing ceremony.  The CAG Principal stated that “the issue of safety for our athletes was a major factor in the decision.  The EA Principal informed the Principals that neither he, nor the EA Athletic Director, nor the EA General Director received any notification neither after the final game, nor during that evening that there was “an issue of safety” for the CAG or any other athletes.      

The Principals are overwhelmingly in agreement that it was inappropriate and unsportsmanlike to not attend as a form of protest. The CAG Principal acknowledges that not appearing at the awards ceremony was incorrect.

Knowledge Bowl: (Nov. 16-19, 2006) Hosted by the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The tournament was well organized. The Varsity and the Junior Divisions were won by The American School of El Salvador. Some questions had to be repeated because the company providing them shorted the host school. A protest was made by one school, and in response the round was repeated. Questions should be opened just prior to each round.

Music Festival: (Feb. 15-18, 2007) Hosted by The Country Day School of San Jose, Costa Rica. Very well organized. CDA Music teacher did a very good job. Col. Maya recommends that the notices regarding the event should be sent to the schools’ directors and principals, not just the music teachers. Col. Maya also recommends that the number of participating students per school be limited, that the ice-breaking activity be an interactive one to facilitate the students’ meeting each other, instead of just a show, and that the event not continue late each evening.

Small School Soccer Tournament: (March 7-11, 2007) Hosted by the International School of Panama. Seven boys teams and six girls teams participated. Two games per day were played, with no less than three hours break in between. Great spirit was displayed by everyone. Poor choice of hotel due to overbooked hotels that weekend in Panama. It is recommended that host schools consider request a change of date if logistical complications necessitate it. A round robin instead of a four-three bracket was used in the boys bracket. Schools had been told that water and Gatorade would be provided, but it was not, causing at least one school to have to purchase them themselves.

Large School Soccer Tournament: (March 7-11, 2007) Hosted by the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It was difficult to maintain a presence at each venue because of use of different fields. Professional cheering brought in by an E.I.S. father. Incident took place in which after a finals game a group of students poured out of the stands and bumped into and pushed players from the opposing team, which was EAS. At various games, intimidating, abusive, and, in some cases, armed EIS parents were present.

Principals’ Conference: (April 13-16, 2007) Mazapan School of La Ceiba, Honduras. Very well organized. Not having the conference tied to another AASCA event was very beneficial and made the conference more effective for the principals. The professional development component of the AASCA Principals’ Conference being offered by the principals themselves was well done and should be continued.

Volleyball Invitational Tournament: (April 18-22, 2007) Will be hosted next week by the American School of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Directors’ Conference: (May 3-6, 2007) Will be hosted by the Lincoln School and the Marion Baker School of San Jose, Costa Rica.

AASCA EVENTS RECOMMENDATIONS

Letter to the AASCA Principals from Dr. Charles Skipper, President of the AASCA General Directors Association.

Ramon Morales presented the letter written by Dr. Charles Skipper as President of the AASCA Directors’ Association. The suggestion to review the letter was made.  After reading the letter the Principals noted that most of the contents of the letter would be discussed as we moved into the AASCA event recommendations already in the agenda.

A motion to take the letter home, to carefully examine its contents and to provide the feedback to each of the schools directors was made.  The Motion was seconded and passed.

AASCA Event Recommendations:

1. That in cases where a member or members of a school community egregiously violates AASCA rules or expectations, the school will be subject to being sanctioned by AASCA, up to and including participatory probation or suspension from AASCA events and that the AASCA Directors develop the mechanism for implementation and enforcement. (Voting results 15 in favor, 0 against, and 0 abstaining.)
2. That the recommendation of the AASCA Athletic Directors that the number of players allowed to be sent to small school athletic events be increased to that of the large schools not adopted; that the existing limits continue.
3. That the awarding of the AASCA Community Service Award be formally awarded in a prominent manner along with the plaque at the AASCA Leadership Conference as promised.
4. That the rule prohibiting noise during basketball free throws, soccer penalty kicks, soccer shoot, and volleyball serves be eliminated, still keeping the ban on artificial noise makers. (Voting results 11 in favor, 3 against, and 1 abstaining).
5. That in the Knowledge Bowl Tournament sufficient questions be supplied by the host school so that no questions are repeated, that questions should be opened just prior to each round, and that a minimum of four games per team be offered so as to maximize participation.
6. That a structured format be adopted for the music event. (The American School of Tegucigalpa will provide a model to be considered by the AASCA music teachers.)
7. That each individual school hosting an AASCA event be held responsible for the conduct of those in attendance. (Voting results 14 in favor, 0 against, and 1 abstaining.)
8. That students participating in AASCA events participate in all elements of the events, to include the awards ceremonies. That not participating in these ceremonies be cause for serious sanctions. (Voting results 15 in favor, 0 against, and 0 abstaining.)
9. That the students who participated in this school year’s AASCA Large School Basketball Tournament receive any earned awards before the end of the school year. (Voting results 9 in favor, 0 against, and 6 abstaining.)
10. That all AASCA member schools be required annually to send a representative to either the AASCA Principals’ Conference or the AASCA Directors’ Conference. (Voting results 15 in favor, 0 against, and 0 abstaining.)
11. That the principals continue to provide the professional development component at the AASCA Principals’ Conference. (Voting results 15 in favor, 0 against, and 0 abstaining.)
12. That the Middle School Choir activity be reexamined by the AASCA Middle School Principals and then recommend to the AASCA Directors as to whether or not this event be offered. (Voting results 15 in favor, 0 against, and 0 abstaining.)

 

Calendar of AASCA Events for 2007-2008

Leadership Conference                                           6-9 September 2007

American School of El Salvador

Media Specialists/Technology                                 28-30 September 2007

Balboa Academy

Tri-Conference                                                                   10-14 October, 2007

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Invitational Basketball Tournament                                      24-28 October 2007

The American School of Tegucigalpa

Knowledge Bowl Tournament                                8-11 November 2007

The Lincoln School

Drama Festival                                                       31 January – 3 February 2008 

The International School of Panama

Small School Soccer Tournament                                        5-9 March 2008

Panamerican School of San Salvador

Large School Soccer Tournament                           27 February – 2 March 2008

American Nicaraguan School

Principals’ Conference                                                        11-14 April 2008

Mazapan School

Large School Volleyball Tournament                       16-20 April 2008

American School of El Salvador

Small School Volleyball Tournament                       23-27 April 2008

Country Day School

Directors’ Conference                                            2-5 May 2008

Colegio Maya

 

Proposed Calendar of AASCA Events for 2008-2009

Athletic Directors’ Conference

Balboa Academy

Leadership Conference

Colegio Americano del Sur

Tri-Conference

Escuela Americana de El Salvador

Small School Basketball Tournament

Colegio Maya

Large School Basketball Tournament

Escuela Internacional Sampedrana

Knowledge Bowl Tournament

Colegio Decroly

Music Festival                                                       

Escuela Internacional Sampedrana

Invitational Soccer Tournament

Colegio Americano de Guatemala

Principals’ Conference

American Nicaraguan School

Large School Volleyball Tournament

American School of Tegucigalpa

Small School Volleyball Tournament

International School of Panama

Directors’ Conference

TBA

Any Other Business

The majority of representatives state that their schools use EBSCO in one way or another.  It was suggested that a detailed EBSCO training be included at the next Librarian/Tech Coordinators Meeting.  Of specific interest was the online access from outside the school component.

The AASCA Community Service Award

Only the Escuela Americana de El Salvador submitted a program for the award.  The Principals Unanimously Approved that the Escuela Americana of El Salvador be the candidate to receive the Community Service Award.

Elections

President – Joseph Azmeh, Principal from the American School of Nicaragua

Vice President – Maribel Maldonado, Principal from the Maya School of Guatemala.

New Position for the AASCA Principals’ Conference.

The principals voted unanimously to create a new office and that the principal whose school hosts the AASCA Principals’ Conference would hold the title of Secretary of the AASCA Principals’ Association. 

The Secretary would be the liaison with the President and main organizer of the logistics for the Principals’ Conference.