It certainly was gratifying to read so many (unsolicited) nice comments in the replies to the teacher who, back in June 2006 started this discussion about IST.
I was particularly pleased to see that comments came from visitors of current staff, and a teacher from a school with whom we did an exchange.
I wondered immediately as to how they knew about/found this site to comment...but I was happy about what they wrote, and already was thinking how to share (probably by printing the webage as is) what they wrote with my staff and school families.

Then I got to the comment by "babyshambles" posted Friday, Jan. 5th 2007.
Wow. What a blast of cold water. My hands are still shaking as I realize that "babyshambles" comments will be online forever, and there is nothing any of our hard work over the last several years, nor what we plan to do over the next year, can do to eliminate what "babyshambles" wrote.
But I feel obligated at least to respond to what I perceive as misinformed comments. I would like to state that I openly invite anyone to visit IST- just give me a few days advance notice so I can be available to give you a tour, arrange for lunch, and make you welcome! I would also like to state that while I respected before the ISR policy of allowing people to post without using their real names (as you can do all over the web), I can say that the shock in having to see yourself call "Rumsfeld" is quite distressing, to say the least. As for seeing my name misspelled... well, emailed spelling errors happen to the best of us, and I excuse "babyshambles" that error.
Point by point:
1. I was hired to take over the school, with the first year to be the Principal/Assistant Director/Middle School English Teacher. I did not "work my way (up)."
2. "Favors Americans": IST has, over the last two years, given 4 local hires large increases in their contracts; given lifetime contracts to a Canadian, one American, and three Italians (one an ex student now a teacher) after their third years at IST; obtained two year extensions for three British teachers; hired as full time teachers an Irishman, 7 Americans (one a returnee to IST from 5 years ago), a Ukrainian, 2 Brits (sorry if I missed anyone); given teaching jobs to two qualified interns to stay second years to teach Literature and Science.
Sorry if I sound defensive, but after having lived overseas in 6 countries for 17+ years, I feel so not "American" that I has to address this!
3. "My way of the Highway": hard to address, as I don't know what that refers too, but I'll take a stab at it. I rarely say to staff "do it my way or else." If anyone can give me a concrete example, I would love to hear it, and I will make sure to ask staff to help me on this one when we return to school for 5 inservice days Sept. 3-7.
4. "Mix of Brits, Americans and Canadians (at the time)": I did manage to hire one Canadian intern for next year, and I offered a job to a Canadian teacher who chose to stay where she is for another year. We do have perhaps (but I am not sure) less Canadians now, but for one very important reason. We have found out from our tax consultant that any Canadians who come to work at IST must pay taxes at home in Canada. They are not tax free for two years at home, as are teachers from the USA or the UK (or most of the rest of Europe), as Canada does not have an agreement that covers teachers in this way with Italy. I discovered this while trying to help a potential Canadian hire figure out how to make ends meet here in Italy if she accepted the job and still had to pay taxes to the Canadian government. In the end, she had to say no for tax reasons.
5. "He only recruits out of the big Boston fair...": I go through one company, SEARCH Associates. I hire at their Boston fair to also have access to lots of interns who are certified, and I also hire from SEARCH online.
6. "Many of the teachers I worked with had little if any credentials": I cannot speak to the school and its hires before I arrived, but IST's policy has always been to hire qualified teachers. In the last two years IST has only hired credentialed teachers. The new hires for my first school year as Director in 05-06 had the following:
Grade 1: 15+ years in British schools and certification
Kindergarten: BA in Music, MA in Elementary Ed, 5 years in a private school in NYC, USA
Grade 2: 4+ years in the UK and fully certified
All the interns hired that year except one (with a Yale degree in Music, hired to teach music), were certified by US Universities to teach
The story was similar for 06-07 (apart from two interns/teachers hired to do PE and Music when a teacher decided to opt out in May of a second year on her verbal agreement to return home to Canada, so I had to hire on very short notice), and again for 07-08.
Of course, we will hire people without certification if we need too- and if they have equivalent experience working with children in an educational atmosphere, such as our last PE teacher for 06-07, who ended up being one of the best overall teachers of children I have ever seen.
7. "Office staff telling teachers off"unfortunately, I have seen this happen in every single school I have worked in... it is human that people who are in contact with one another every day, will occasionally "have words" with one another. Having said that, we are working hard to make IST a place where all staff (teachers, Admin, cleaners, cooks, office workers, guards, groundskeeper, etc.) treat each other with respect and dignity. I will say that specific examples that are brought to my attention are worked on... but we can only "fix" what we know about, so I constantly encourage staff to communicate with one another and with me.
8. The first thing that the IST School Board and new Bursar authorized when I "took over" (for lack of a better term) two years ago in July 2005, was to set a new policy of all new hires will have bank accounts opened for them by the school within days of their arrival. This was done because I had heard of issues with paying teachers in cash, etc. I actually witnessed the cash distribution process my first December here, in Dec. 2005, and swore then that we would professionalize the way we pay staff. This we have done.
As for looking in drawers for cash- anything like that is now in the past for two years.
9. "Pity, the children are being short changed": sigh... how to respond.
a. Enrollment has gone from 240 two years ago to over 310 for September 2007.
b. There are waiting lists at most levels from the 2 year old program up into middle school- and all rooms are full up to 7th grade (three spaces) and above.
c. Parents are happy their children are happy... they raised this year close to 10,000 Euros for four different charity projects.
d. Our overall tuition is the lowest for the diplomas given by International Schools in all of Italy- and includes a hot lunch in the price.
I better stop... I don't want to brag, I just want to point out that things are getting better, and can always get better.

The irony of "babyshambles" bragging about being at one of the "best schools in Mexico...with teachers winning prestigious American sponsored teacher awards" does not escape me!
What can change things, however, is communication.
I will say, in ending, that I encourage "babyshambles" to contact me and to visit IST again.
A face to face discussion over a cup of coffee or lunch, rather than an anonymous email filled with information that is second or third hand ("babyshambles" wrote "...from my contacts who are still in the in.") would be of great help to IST and to me in making this school continually better.

but I will admit it... it does hurt to read what "babyshambles" wrote. Guess I'll just have to take what he/she said, and try to make it into something good for IST and good for me, as I hope I have done above.

Thank you all for your patience in reading this exceedingly long response!
Sincerely,
Jim Pastore, Director, IST