Talented Board of Trustees Governs AIS
Nominations are underway for the AIS board of trustees for the next school year, making this a good time to highlight some of the tasks and duties associated with serving on our governing body.
Our board is charged with “operating, maintaining and conducting an international preparatory school for boys and girls, and administering a program designed to prepare students to take examinations administered by the International Baccalaureate Organization or its successors.” The board is restricted to 35 members each serving up to three terms of three years; members are eligible for re-election after the first two terms. Officers of the Board are exempt from the otherwise applicable term limitations. After serving three consecutive terms, a trustee cannot be re-elected until one year after the expiration of the third full term, unless under exceptional circumstances. Terms of office begin on July 1. The board may recognize retiring individuals who have given especially distinguished service by electing them as Trustee Emeritus/Emerita. Currently, we have three such individuals on our board: Roy and Olga Plaut, the school's co-founders, are Chairman Emeritus and Trustee Emerita respectively. Monique Seefried, IB Council of Foundation President, is also a Trustee Emerita.
Trustees meet as a complete group four times during the school year, as well as for a weekend retreat, but there are nine committees that meet more frequently to discuss matters relevant to their special interest. The committees cover the following areas of the school's operations:
- Administration (Gerry Hull, Chair)
- Buildings & Grounds (Steve Huyghe, Chair)
- Committee on Trustees (Jeff Levy, Chair)
- Community Principles (R. Roosevelt Thomas, Chair)
- Development (includes marketing and communication) (Eleanor Ratchford, Chair)
- Education (Christine P. Ries, Chair)
- Finance (Shahrokh Rouhani, Chair)
- Headmaster Evaluation (John Porter, Chair)
- Strategic Planning (Alan Colberg, Chair)
The current board of 27 members is composed of 20 current or former parents, six non-parents and one AIS alumna. All board members are volunteers and receive no compensation for their services. They bring to the board expertise in education, finance, law, technology, marketing and the corporate world. The board is responsible for hiring the Headmaster, who is in turn responsible for the hiring of all faculty and staff.
AIS is fortunate to have such an enthusiastic group of people who are eager to share their professional expertise for the benefit of the school. The next time you see any of our board members on campus, know that these gifted individuals are responsible for ensuring that AIS continues to be a leader in international education.
The current members of the board are Chair Gerry Hull, Vice-Chair Alan Colberg, Chand Akkineni, Nancy Bauer, Marlys Brothers '92, Marc Fleury, John F. Giblin, Christopher Hutchings, Steven Huyghe, Neil Johnson, Crissy Klaus, Guenter Lauber, Axel Leblois, Jeff Levy, Chris Lowe, Lawrence E. Mock, Jr., John Porter, Eleanor Ratchford, Christine P. Ries, Paul Rosser, Shahrokh Rouhani, Deborah Sudbury, R. Roosevelt Thomas, John Valeri, John Whitehead and Andrew Whitney. Ex-officio members are Robert Brindley, Headmaster; Roy Plaut, Jr., Chairman Emeritus; Olga Gomez Plaut, Trustee Emerita; and Monique Seefried, Trustee Emerita.