The Prague Post Online: News: Mass departure rattles international school

May 17th, 2008

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Mass departure rattles international school

Parents worried as competition battles for students and faculty

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 9th, 2007 issue

More than half of the administrators, including the director, at The British International School, Prague (BISP) handed in their resignations at the beginning of the month. They plan to launch a new school with teachers who have also decided to leave BISP over what one administrator calls “differences with the owner.”

But exactly where that new school, called the Prague British School (PBS), will be located is a matter of debate. Those involved with it say that they intend to occupy the current BISP sites.

But the owner of BISP, Robert Blasko, says he’s staying put. The uproar has parents worried about the futures of both schools.

Blasko said he signed an air-tight 20-year lease on the Prague 4 and 6 campuses in 2003. “They can’t locate their school on our premises,” Blasko said May 3, three days after he found out about the mass departure.

Michal Bočan, the financial director of PBS, said the new school’s location “is the subject of ongoing negotiations on various fronts.

“It is an absolute priority for us to resolve this issue as soon as possible in order that this period of uncertainty for parents can be brought to an end,” he said.

The plan to create PBS started in October, when Bočan, whose children go to the school, first discussed the idea with other parents.

“I believe that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the ‘closed’ nature of decision-making at BISP. There is a terrific atmosphere among the staff and parents … [but] many stakeholders feel that there are no real opportunities for them to have a say in how the school is run,” Bočan said.

Fraser Litster, the departing development and marketing manager at BISP, said those who are leaving are doing so due to differences with the owner.

He will be on the PBS board of directors after his BISP employment ends June 30.

“People do not change employment so readily without serious consideration and having good reasons,” Bočan said.

“From very, very early on, I didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel I had any security,” said a BISP teacher who requested anonymity because he had not yet resigned. He said the morale at BISP is poor and that most teachers are planning to resign.

Litster stressed that the current plans will have no effect on students between now and the end of term. About 680 students, representing 60 nationalities and ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years attend BISP. The school started in 1992 with six students.

Out of the blue?

Blasko, who said he lives in Switzerland and visits Prague weekly, said he was not aware that these staff members were unhappy.

“I’m very perplexed because we always worked on very friendly terms,” he said. “I did not understand the motivation.”

The teacher held a different view: “People are reticent to voice an opinion that goes against the grain for fear of possible repercussions.”

Blasko said BISP’s executive and supervisory boards have “expressed total loyalty to [BISP] and to myself.”

Furthermore, rumors that BISP is bankrupt are totally false, both Litster and Blasko said.

“We are financially extremely sound,” Blasko said. “We don’t owe a single penny to anybody and we have a positive profit balance” with an “eight-figure balance in the bank.”

Last summer, BISP built a new library and 12 new classrooms at a cost of 10 million Kč and spent another 12 million Kč on technology.

Blasko said he believes BISP will lose students and that the split will be bad for pupils, BISP and the new school.

“What parents, what expatriate parents, hate most is change,” Blasko said. Some parents, he said, “find this action quite appalling.”

But Bočan said PBS has received “absolutely overwhelming support.

“I have been very encouraged by all the pledges of support we have received in the past few days,” he said.

PBS’s enrollment started the week of April 30.

The schools’ Web sites are www.bisp.cz and www.pbschool.cz.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com

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