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It aims to build a better school environment within QSI-Tirana International School.
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 229 of 229Try this link...the other one did not work....I think it was cut off
http://www.torii.army.mil/archives/archives/2009/may/28/index.htm
cut off again....the end should continue
/2009/may/28/index.htm
the link kept getting cut off...it ends -
/2009/may/28/index.htm
not working!
While I really wanted to enjoy the talent show and the exciting venue (it REALLY was nice to get out of the Mosher building -- we have outgrown it 2 years ago!) , I regret it was a ridiculous display of lack of manners by our children, poor parenting, poor supervision and poor organisation of the programme! WHAT were the organisers thinking of to not have the younger ones go first, take a break and then have those older kids go last? The last thing we needed was a dozen or more 3 to 6 year olds running around insane and distracting away from the kids who went up front and had to deal with the distraction and disrespect for thier hard work during the latter half. Shame on the school for not taking control, shame on our kids and most shame on our parents. WOULD YOUR parents have let you run insane like that when you were a kid. TImes have changed, but I think some decent courtesy is still in fashion. Maybe we should have sold more COKE or some RED BULL to wind them up more!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations to the kids who tried so hard and made up proud..shame on the rest!
The talent show was one of the better ones I have seen i. The orgnizers chose very well the pieces presented I believe! Space was good but lacked control. School and parents both should have been more active in conrolling the flow of young children, snack purchansing and general activity of the very young! The young could not be blamed for their free for all mood, it is the adults who were watching on passively the meyhem. It is a shame really, performing children worked hard on their peices and I believe a lot of them were robbed of their moment having to comepte with unrully commotion. To sit passively and take it all in is not an acceptable or recommended way of doing things. Our directors both failed to take the opportunity to set some ground roles before the show and extend thanks to the orgnizers afterwards, after all that was all a lot of work they put in regardless of how things turned out. It could be a case of where they want to send a clear messege that when things are not done their way, this is what you are goint to get. Yet reinforcing the case of one sided management instead of working together to make tis a successful school. Shame on directors for not taking the lead and on parents for being rude in not controlling their kids!
I have never seen any directors acting so passively in all that chaos. I did no not see MH EVER make an effort to control the scene for HIS school programme or to take the microphone in hand WELCOME the parents and ask them FIRMLY to look after thier kids. I did see James Martin try. Why did school managment stand by passively? Why did parents standby??? It did indeed look like an attempt to show that if not done the school management way then they will not make an effort. When his wife organises something he goes all out...anything else...he could care less or be courteous enough to greet the kids and parents and make us feel welcome. REMEMBER: Communication and relationship is the key to success. Oh yeah!
I am not sure why we all expected better than this where Mr.Hemphill is concerned. His personal public skills are not there so no need to harp on the old banjo. However, t is amzing that his 2nd in command fell in for the trick! By Maura not helping out the situation, he has managed to make her look bad too. So, I believe that our 2nd director needs to assert herself much more forcefully in the future if she wants to show her ability to direct and rescue the negative and bitter feeling of parents towards the office of directors.
I love the banjo..how dare it be lowered to this status.
OVER 200 blog entries and we now have:
--the teacher problem of 4s, 6s, 7,s 8s half fixed with the final teacher coming soon. THis is a COMPLETE REVERSAL of QSI decision
--new Director on the way
--a budget meeting which had not taken place for 1.5 years
WHO SAYS NO ONE READS THE BLOG....it is read and it contributed something to the above successes.
There is still ALONG ways to go for our school.. I hope the blog will play a role as a place to complain, share ideas, and even to contribute to solutions!
We are getting there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks to the Grunerud family for donating the playhouse for the new play area at the school. Amazing the school has almost 1 million dollars of our money in the bank and they get a FREE playground...aside from paying for a truckload of gravel which is only small pocket change money. Why all this penny pinching? Do they know something we don 't know?
it is time to have qsi business practices investigated. When not offereing to pay for a teacher's dependents becuase the contract was for a single person post, it is a clear case of exploytation on qsi part. With the unemployment situation in the usa being what it is, they get away with murder. Could you imagine being in debt to the company that is just hired you before your feet touch the ground! So, why should we not worry about the teachers happiness, when they are stressed and exploited, we all should be worried. Teachers spend a long time teaching our kids, so , their happiness and satsfaction in their families sitution is very important. if this was a struggling company, I can understand but when it is raking 50 million dollars in annual revenue, it is sick!
all the faith I had in the director of instruction is gone. Not only that but also all the respect too. How could she stand by such a corrupt and twisted outfit such as qsi and tote around its policies and be a soldier for its mission. Shame on Maura for not seeing the truth and shame on her for playing their game. A lot of us thought that you are a good person but now I am positive that you will stop at nothing to get to your goal of being a regional director one day even if it comes at your chiristain values' expense and your family's suffering. How sad for you!
tis director seems to be caught in the details again, when is he gone get it?. It is the matter of a lot of money we are talking about here. simply put, spend the money we pay you on our kids, we have it in writting from you, you charge us tuition and capital fund fee, please just show us how you plan on improving our kids facilities and after and in school activities. We are not interested in your future plans, we are not going to be here for them but we do not want to fund what we are not gone use or see. Mr. Director you do not have to be afraid of a group of parents to get together to do what is right by their children. you should be supportive and understanding, you do not pay for your kids so to you it is not an issue but we do and we will do everytghing possibel to see our kids through this issue with you and qsi that puts you here as their mouth piece. We all knwo that the advisory board and pac that you are currently calling the parent support group do not represent parents issues especially money wise, the truth you are afraid because you know and qsi knows that hoarding our children money in your bank accounts is wrong not to mention the cash bags that gets driven around the balkans to your head quarters. Your centeral funds should fund the new school building and the students that benefit from it shoudl be the one paying for the great school you keep telling us about. That is what is right to do. We do not mind you making a profit or saving for a black day but we do not mind the shabby condition our kids have to put with and the pathetic activities the school provides. Just think about it Mr. Director, if you were shelling 35,000 dollars out of your pocket for your kids, would you accept the dump called Tirana International School? I am sure not!
The Montessory school in Sileta is having an open house tommorrow at 9am. I recommend that you go there just to find out for yourself what else is available in this town other than tis. See what less money could buy you. American teachers and a native French teacher, brand new everything and to top it up it planns on being an IB programme, I doubt tis could beat that. Not to forget our sister school of GDQ who is a great value for your money and provided a much more solid foundation for the children than tis does. check out their programme which is a beautiful mix of American and British schools of thought molded to fit the Albania setting. You may find their website overly religous but in reality it is not. They are very open to secular and other religous thoughts but they are here to mainly serve the mission community which is a nice, kind and caring bunch of families really. So if you are confident in the way you bring up your kids, a GDQ religous tones should not bother you. At least they are candid, honest and open about it, unlike tis/qsi who dishes out religon to our children under the table.
ah the blog is not dead and parents are alive and kicking. there was alot to get off our minds last night. this year will not end peacefully the new director has a tall order. we need our lawyer parents to meet the QSI lawyer who is coming next week and to ask him one simple question: WHICH COUNTRY or COUNTRIES LAWS DO YOU OPERATE UNDER??????
while reading up on monopolies and how they function, it is said that the only way to bring some balance to such a situation is through collective action. Now, we all know that this is not going to work with tis/qsi. It is not possible to convince all parents to protest and stop sending their kids to school something qsi/tis is well aware of and banks on! Gim Gilson could be heard saying''let them bark(parents) all they want, they are not going anywhere and they will be back here in Sep with their kids, the old guard will leave and the new ones will need time to figure things out while we make good buisness boys''. Against this, we have no hope I am afraid unless by some miracle another school opens in this town, any bidders?
While Mark J. Hemphill was and is pinching money for his master Jim Gilson, he, tis and qsi are losing hundards of thousands. The 2y program closed last year, this year so far only 3 kids have signed up for the Sep. season. What pity, this is a school that was bursting at the seems, now, it will be and is handing big number of its current student population to other schools in town. Not to mention that we hear of new arrivals that do not even bother to check tis all together and going directly to Montessori, GD, memorial international and others. Well done Mark, save pennies, get transfered to China where your girls will have a lot of room to run around while Maura and the new director will be trying very hard to repair what you have done. Shame people like you are in the system. We hear of other qsi directors that do well by their schools and some that are excatly like you! Enjoy your time in China counting supplies and recycling pencils. Regards
The international night was fun, the food was great, the costumes were great. The Jamiacan peroforamnce was great and we cannot forgive Camil and Prince for hiding their talents until the end of their time in Tirana, sorry to see you go guys!
I am not sure why we have to have Goldie open our events, is she using tis as a public platform for her future career?
The school was trying hard to portrey that the French program is sound and strong through the endless French performances.
Big thanks to Ms. Chudin and Ms. Violets for staging a wonderful evening. However, the rain was a big reminder that while the school has a million dollar saved in the bank, parents, kids, teachers and all people attending had to put up with the romantic rain of the evening! Well done Mr. Hemphill and good luck to you in China!
would a covered playground (for the 150 days of rain or the hot days of June or September) break the bank of TIS? A wisely bought cover could even MOVE to the next school (if we ever get one) or be sold. SPEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is gone take a lot more than an 8 meter canvas to rescue tis' reputation in Tirana, nice try and it may do some good but so much more needs to be done. Tis please get real, it is not a bout the show, it is about the core, it is not about dragging your canvas across town to show it in a gallary, get a grip on yourselves. Send out a detailed plan to the current parents showing how you plan on spening the funds paid to you, better computer lab, play areas, music room, activities, outdoor play areas, better cafe setting, better toys, better facilities, better admission policies, better office management, in short better everything! A cross town, this school's reputation is finished and good luck to the next director to prove to people otherwise. A reminder that this blog pops up whenever you search qsi/tis.
2 things will make Jim Gilson see the light. one: a request for audit reports of his comapny. two: a request to the tax authorities in America to investigate qsi and see if the stauts of none profit title has not been abused by Mr. Gilson and his partners in Ljublijana including their sister company in the usa named ssi (school supplies internationl) owned by Mr. Gilson's sister in law and her husband. contacting the middel states associaon may not do anything but it does not hurt to try. what will be really refreshing if a nyt investigative artical were to be done on qsi as an example of American companies ripping the tax man of his dues! this is of course with the fact that the state department does not want to bother looking into qsi situation even though they have known for years that parents are unhappy with this chain of schools. this is out of a selfish reason being that qsi opens schools in places no other companeis go so qsi have always felt and feel untouchable because of this point.
Tis fashion show was a good platform for overly sexual presentation by the ladies of the secondary, that is a shame. Such young ladies given the green light from the school to present themselves as sexual objects is a disappointement. Big grown men who are fathers were embarressed by the scene. Shame on tis managements for such allowances! In the name of freedom of expression, a moral standard has been crossed by the school and made to look blessed by the international community of which the majority does not agree with the scene or such displays!
so the year ends and the big lie comes out. The Albanian authorities will not rent a piece of land to tis. We all knew that except tis, how pathetic. But no, if fact it is very intellgant. While tis has being stealing parents money in the name of the new school which is not coming any time soon, the top managers are enjoying trips around the globe, attending meetings and parties world travelling at our expense. I believe that all parens should not pay a penny to tis come Sep. unless the schools shows how it plans on improving the school for the current students who are not ging to be around when the new school comes which will be another ten years or so. I suggest we all sue qsi in Solvnia and demand our money back from them. The new deal is that tis has to buy a piece of land and so will use all its funds for that and borrow some more from the mother company qsi. So, they will raise the tuition while our children attend a dump to pay for a new school none of us will be here for. All this because Jim Gilson wants to collect his 10% profits from tis and all other schools and bank it in some off shore accounts where no country could trace the money to. This is the biggest scam if there ever was 1 parents. The sad thing is there is not much any of us could do and the parties with the power to do something are silent!
let me try this again....read the US inspector general report of the embassy in tirana of march 2010. it has a chapter on thier support to TIS (ongoing since 1992..what an invesemtment?) saying that TIS rejected the government school offer, will need to buy land, and that our tax free status in unsure. i NEVER saw this in any TIS newsletter or board meeting? why do i have to find out about my MONEY on the web. AND YES..the fashion show was inappropriate and embarrassing. i feel sorry the girls tried so hard and that no adult had the sense to give them advise or to SCREEN it. I am sure the young boys in the front row are well versed in reproductive health now!
no one who is paying the new INCREASED tuition for next year will see a new school for AT LEAST 2 years. every penny will be saved for that except for the salary bonuses that go to LOYAL managers at QSI. pity our children sitting in that dump for 2 or more years. i hope the new teachers will be as good as the old group. that is our only salvation!!!!!!!!!!!!! but if they are treated poorly then who can say how they will do?
the US report on QSI, with QSi deleted for confidentiality is on page 41 of this report on this link: http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/141120.pdf
I wish I found this blog before I got into the mess that is QSI in Tbilisi!!!! I am saddened to learn that it isn;t just our school, but a systematic failure of ledership and organization withing the "quality" school system. Perhaps we can form a QSI - int'l paretns group, maybe strength in numbers? they know we all cycle in and out and just seem to wait for the next group to come in and pay that tuition.....
Tired in Tbilisi
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