GSIS and Ma On Shan

Longterm I think that the board is looking at this set of threads. In fact I was told that the chairman of the board mentioned that he had seen and read all the blogs that were out there re the school. They must know that this is going on as well as other parents in that there have been already 3800 hits on this stream alone. I cannot however work out if any of the responses so far are from a member of the board or not but it would seem to me that they have declined to comment in this forum.

My feeling, and I really hope that this does not happen, is that the board is going to stick with their decision that MOS must go through. They will first of all start with the usual scare tactics of "do you know the consequences if the MOS move does not take place and that "if the move doesn't happen the future of the shcool will be seriously jeopardized". I think that the board will also try to get the secondary parents rallied and say "look the primary parents are at fault here and you should watch it in that they are the ones that are blocking our grand scheme for the future of the school." Once this divide and conquer method has been employed they will then make all the right noises about helping with the transition to MOS, task forces need to be set up etc etc.

On a complete side note here has anyone worked out how much extra it is going to cost to get to MOS just because of the tunnel usage? or how much extra this is going to cost primary parents through hidden costs? was just curious.
 
Thou not my wish, I share with genome's deepest fear that no matter how hard we tried, the board still goes ahead. With record shown with the Tin Hou case 2 yrs ago, who would have faith in this board that they will to sit down and really listen. In the last email about the General Meeting, they said there would be a split in lower primary and a shortened decanting time. Yet, anybody no the detail I wonder...
The school do not have to question the parents about our kids' future which largely depends on their education. The real question in sight is do the school want to give our children "an option" instead of fighting for "the best" for them? If the board is reading this forum, I hope they can think thru this before the meeting.
 
The long awaited notice of the EGM by the school has finally come out for parents to read. I myself have read it with interest especially when I saw the word modify and compromise hoping to find something worthwhile but was severly disapointed.

1) the compromise of sending primary years one and two to Pok Fu Lam as far as I am aware is not a compromise but something that the board agreed with the education department in order to be able to secure the site.

2) the letter mentions construction work but gives no time frame. How can you start a project with no projected end? and this is important in that without and end or a plan primary will continue to be in limbo.Once again vagueness nothing concrete.

3) For Phase 3 and 4 they want to take a wait and see attitude. Is this the correct attitude to take when you are talking about the future of the school and our children.

4) They mention that this is the best way forward but why? For me and I hope for the rest of the parents the board really need to do more work in explaining why this is the best way.

The thing that upset me the most was the final "rah rah" statement at the end of the letter. (see highlighted below) Which in my opinion was completely unnecessary. Every parent wants the school renovated and rejuvenated we all care about the school and want what is best but do not believe that Ma On Shan is the answer. We are not a bunch of trouble makers but only want what is best for the school and our children. The compromise that they are asking parents to rally behind is not a compromise at all.


"Voting at these meetings is extremely important. In the year of the fortieth GSIS anniversary, we invite
you to rally behind the compromise agreed by the Board and to embark together on the journey of
renovation and rejuvenation of our school."

It really pains me to say this but at this present moment in time I would feel more comfortable if the board of General Motors was running the school in that at least they are more in touch with public opinion than the present GSIS board.
 
Hi all,
No words can ever explain the pain parents are having.
We pay for our kids' education by working hard in the brutal environment already. Why do we have to suffer from these frustration every night and day worrying what is going to happen to the school campus. The school is doing this window dressing action, splitting up the parents unity instead of working on a real problem. Parents do not want MOS because it is too far not because we do like to renovate the school or want the school to fall apart. If the board is reading,please kindly do not invite us to rally behind something that is not wanted and not well planned.
The school is breaking every last faith parents are having... Please do not act like Richard Li from PCCW.. Please listen..
 
I have just read the Second EGM Notice. It said the Requisition stated that:-
"The object of the EGM is to discuss the merits of decanting the GSIS Primary School to Ma On Shan for the duration of the Campus Development Plan and, upon completion of that discussion, for the members of the GSIS Association to vote on the following resolution to bind the GSIS Association and its Directors:
THAT the GSIS Association and its Directors immediately terminate any discussions and plans with third parties to decant GSIS school classes from the Peak to Ma On Shan.
THAT upon sourcing a suitable site or solution, the Directors of the GSIS Association hold an Extraordinary General Meeting to receive the GSIS Association approval for the new site or solution before it binds the GSIS Association."

The Board then went on to say that "the objectives and the proposed resolutions set out in the Requisition are the affairs, administration and business of the Association, which the Board has been vested with the power to manage under Article 50 of German Swiss International School Association Limited's Memorandum & Articles of Association and do not require the approval of the members at general meetings. The said Article 50, which states that the management of the affairs, administration and business of the Association shall be vested in the Board, gives the Board the requisite power to make the final decision on the relocation of departments of the school."

I gather what it means is that the resolutions proposed by the requisitionists will not have any legal effect even if they are passed at the EGM. I wonder if there is any requisitionist reading this thread. If so, could he/she tell us if any legal advice has been taken on this point? I am a bit worried because the last thing I want to see is a legal battle between the parents and the school.
 
I just heard a funny joke:

Do you know the difference between the Titanic and GSIS?

The Titanic had a better band!
 
The EGM is comming up.

From the board there is more than likely going to be a lot of scaremongering, posturing about how they have done their best, about how the board has the right to make all the decision, about how they have made compromises ( that we now know were not compromises at all but prerequisites of the Education board). Etc Etc Etc.

In my mind it could not be simpler. You either vote no or yes for Ma On Shan.

I will vote NO to Ma On Shan for the reasons listed below.

I do not want my child to be put in danger on long bus journeys on Hong Kong highways. How many road accidents have we seen lately that ended in the loss of life?
How a board can even think that this is viable proposition for such a young age group is beyond me. We should be protecting our young not exposing them to danger.

I do not want my child to end up in a situation where decanting can become a part of normal school life. The boards plan at the moment is to move to Ma On Shan and then when this expires move to another decanting site to finish of the rest of the works.

I do not want the school to embark on a building project where they can force me to pay 10% more in fees, hike my debenture up to 350 thousand dollars and then keep it till they feel they are in a financially stable environment before they pay it back.

I will not tell you how to vote only that if you do vote please make sure that it is an informed one.

Thank you all for listening.

Genome
 
Genome,

As I understand it, they are not asking us to vote yes or no to MOS. The Board has made it clear that the decision as to whether the school is going to move to MOS is going to be made by the Board alone.

The 1st EGM is to consider and vote on the following "compromise proposal":-
�� The relocation of the Lower German and English Primary classes (comprising DVOR to K01 and Y01 ? Y02) to the 162 Pokfulam Road premises as soon as the facilities are refurbished, but not earlier than the start of the 2010 ? 11 school year
�� The decanting of the remaining German and English Primary to the Ma On Shan site for the duration of the construction on the Peak
�� The setting up of working groups, composed of representatives of parents and faculty, aimed at working out recommendations to the School Management regarding issues caused by the decanting process as laid out in this proposal.

So even if the votes are against this "compromise proposal" and assuming further that the resolutions proposed by the requisitionists are put to the vote and passed in the 2nd EGM, the Board has already indicated that all these decisions will not bind the Board. So what are the requisitionists going to do in such a situation? Are they going to take legal action against the school?
 
I can only answer this question from a personal point of view in that I do not speak for all.

If the board still decides to go ahead with something that the majority of parents don't want I would not want to be part of such an organization. At some point enough is enough.

Such an action by the board would go against everything that I believe the motto of the school stands for.

"The school of choice"

I would excercise our parental right of choice and pull our child out of the school and just so eveyone knows there are a lot of choices out there.
 
Although the board has the final decision, yet if the result is showing that the majority of the parents do not agree, it can still show the society and ED what we prefer.
So, I am going and vote "NO" to compromise proposal and "NO" to decanting to MOS.
 
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