@ justthefacts

Give it a rest. You obviously have a bone to pick with the school. Is that information really worthy of a post? He was emotional the first time because he has been at the school for 3 years and had his first chance to lead a secondary school. He has time to go away and gather his emotions, and you cry conspiracy? Pathetic.

Actually, my rebuttal would be that you are sad. You are the reason that I rarely join forums.

@PsyGuy, to say that your opinion is true, is a bit of an oxymoron. It's called an opinion for a reason. You are welcome to have any opinion that you want, I'm not going to take that away from you. But don't call it the truth. Facts are true. Opinions are conjecture.

Yes PsyGuy, I enrolled just to respond to this post. Thanks for pointing that out. You failed to point out that the original poster also enrolled just to post. Yet his information is taken as gospel. I forgot how many angry know-it-alls hung out in these forums, and that is why I usually stay away. I was just trying to clear up some of the confusion and put an end to speculation. If I have to post 3000 plus times to get some respect around here, then I wouldn't hold your breath waiting. I'm not being defensive because I'm a lurking administrator. I just didn't want to stand by and watch as the facts were distorted.

Justthefacts, I was in that meeting and I stand by the fact that An Wei never said that foreign staff would have to either accept local salary and benefits or find new jobs. I also didn't hear her say that Head of School and Secondary Principal would be recruited and filled locally.

Yes, we don't know what the future holds, and the package may have to be re-structured in the future. I may be overly optimistic in saying that there isn't any shortage of Chinese families that are willing to pony up the 30k that it takes to send their kid to BCIS. As long as we fill the seats, and the tuition remains high, there is no reason to re-structure salary and benefits.

Ok, enough speculation on what the facts truly are. As a current BCIS teacher, I will tell you what I know.

The original poster is right, Bill O'Hearn and Shawn Hutchinson are both leaving at the end of the school year. Yes, Bill O'Hearn is leaving a year earlier than expected, that was announced after returning from winter break. Shawn Hutchinson's departure was recently announced as well. It was sudden, and a surprise to most of the secondary staff but it is not an early departure. Shawn's contract was up at the end of the school year and although his decision not to renew was sudden, it is not an early departure.

Ms. An Wei, board director, did brief the staff on changing demographics and admissions policies moving forward. There was no formal announcement of BCIS becoming a Chinese private school. BCIS has always been allowed to enrol Chinese nationals but has officially kept the cap at 25% Chinese nationals. On paper, BCIS is actually a Chinese private school that is allowed to enrol foreign nationals. NOT an international school that is allowed to enrol Chinese nationals. So technically speaking, we've always been a Chinese private school. Keeping the cap at 25% always created the appearance that we were an International school with Chinese nationals. Of course, you could argue that the number has always been higher than 25%, with plenty of Chinese students holding passports from the US, Canada, Australia, etc. but that's a whole other can of worms.

There was never any announcement to staff that they had to stay on at local staff benefit levels, or find a new job. The salary and benefit structure for expat staff has NOT changed and no one was told to seek new employment. No foreign teachers are being left high and dry. There was no talk of lowering tuition fees or moving to a model with lower tuition and lower overhead. I think BCIS is happy paying the foreign wages so they can continue charging the 30K plus tuition fees.

Staff were told that the new admissions policy, and the removal of the traditional 25% cap on Chinese nationals would likely result in a higher number of Chinese nationals attending the school. The new admissions policy will no longer look at nationality as a determining factor and will focus on academic ability, language ability and value/fit for the school.

The truth is, with changing economic climates and more expats leaving Beijing, even schools like ISB and WAB no longer have the epic waiting lists that they once had. If BCIS wants to continue operating at a decent level and wants to continue recruiting and retaining quality foreign staff, it will need the revenue from increased enrolment of Chinese nationals. That is the reality of the market in Beijing with so many schools operating but less expats working in China.