Annual Report2013-2014

From the President of the Board

During this past year, the Board of Directors of Woodstock School has maintained its breathless pace, working with the Principal and staff to implement the 2020 Vision. Slightly less than a year ago, the four pillars emerged, products both of long-discerned needs implicit in 2020 Vision and of Dr. Long’s fertile imagination. In less than three hundred and sixty-five days since then, what were dreams are developing into plans and thence into realities. But the Board has also taken an opportunity to stop, breathe and look around. The November meeting presented a chance to take stock. In a matter of four days the Board participated in a Governance workshop to discuss whether we are doing our work in line with best practices. We also sought to parse the findings not only of a Board self-evaluation, but also an evaluation of the Principal and the results of surveys administered separately to students and staff. Overall, the Woodstock body is healthy, focused, productive and positive. However, good schools can always become better, so with the insights gained from these instruments, we the Board will strive for our own improvement, while heartily supporting Dr. Long and keeping our collective ears to the ground, open to the voices of students, staff and parents. These are truly exciting times at Woodstock. I feel privileged to lead such an excellent Board as we work with the outstanding Principal, administration and staff.

From the Principal

Woodstock School is built on the verve and vitality of its people. The vibrant photos in this year’s Annual Report draw on this dynamism that permeates every classroom, corridor, dorm room and learning space in this remarkable place. Whether in the face of ambitious opportunity or even in the face of grand challenge, Woodstock is sustained by this relentless positive energy. It would be easy to list 365 days’ worth of accomplishments. But to really see the essence of what goes on here, you have to plunge into the everyday life of Woodstock. Whether in the myriad daily interactions between people, the magic of an inspiring classroom or the lofty grandeur of bold strategy, you will find passionate hearts, determined people, curious minds and smiling faces! 2020 vision describes the ability to see with sharpness and clarity – to determine what is important from what is less important and to bring focus to what is blurred or uncertain. Hardly surprising then that 2020 Vision is the title of our bold blueprint for change. In the 3 years since we first presented this vision to the Board of Directors much has been accomplished in the areas of leadership, educational philosophy, an integrated curriculum and service to our neighbors. Now distilled into four fundamental pillars, this vision will ensure Woodstock’s commitment to values of excellence, personal responsibility, leadership, service, and above all, our commitment to people.

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Pillar 1: Renovation of our teaching spaces

While our approach to education has significantly evolved over the decades, our learning spaces have remained largely unchanged. Re-creating our teaching spaces a truly exciting and ambitious project that will include an extensively redesigned Library and Resource Centre, state-of-the-art Science laboratories, renovated classrooms, a dedicated Study and Student Support Centre, and a world class Performing Arts facility and auditorium emerging from a remodeled Parker Hall and Media Centre.

Pillar 2: A Centre for Imagination

The Centre will be a living space on campus for young people to pursue independent learning and to discover their potential to change their immediate world. Workshops, mentoring, alumni involvement, online learning, seminars, innovations, or even entrepreneurial enterprises will add to the richness of the Centre. Serving as a doorway to Woodstock’s immense resources for learning, the Centre will focus on preparing young people to meaningfully occupy a peaceful and sustainable future.

Pillar 3: Student Diversity

The exploration of diverse worldviews has been a hallmark of a Woodstock education. Put quite simply: diversity opens minds and hearts. It is not always easy but is unequaled as a promoter of growth in understanding, caring and acceptance. We will focus our efforts and increase our funding to recruit for students across a wide range of human characteristics including linguistic, cultural and social-economic diversity.

Pillar 4: Community Engagement

After 160 years, the time has come for us to adopt a deliberate and bold approach to our outreach to the wider community and particularly to the poor. Through education and meaningful community engagement we have it within our power to genuinely make a difference while providing Woodstock students with understanding, knowledge and tools to become agents of change. Community engagement programmes include continuing work in rural development, such as is now begun in Dunda and Thatyur; a Woodstock-led offering of a quality education for employee’s children; and the realization of the potential of Woodstock not only as a school, but a teacher training institute.

2020 Vision: One year closer

Over the past year we have continued to make progress on the seven primary objectives of the 2020 Vision, which include strengthening leadership, retaining quality teaching staff, increasing student diversity, integrating academic, enrichment and residential learning, spiritual exploration and growth, strengthening our Indian and Himalayan roots and engaging our alumni around the world.

Emerging from the seven objectives are four pillars that serve as the foundation for the future of Woodstock. Whether it is reimagining our learning spaces, creating a place for independent study and mentoring relationships, expanding the scope of student diversity or providing transformative education through community engagement, these four initiatives are essential if we are to realize our vision.

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Key Steps and Outcomes

Some of the key elements that characterized our financial performance last year are:

1. A budgeting process that involves allocation of available financial resources leading to concept of sharing the “pie”

2. Optimum utilization of available resources.

3. Budgetary controls, analytics and reporting

4. Focused approach towards Vision2020

5. Clean audit report by our newly appointed auditors – M/s Alag & Associates, New Delhi

6. Quarterly reporting to Finance Committee of the Board and the Board of Directors ensured transparency and created a controlled and responsible environment for our spending.7. Identification and mitigation of risks

8. Allocated and spent $ 544,700 on the capital needs of the school, including building projects and investments in Information Technology.

Financial Summary

The chart below represents our overall performance for the year.

As a reference, the spending distribution of residential international schools generally follows the given trend:

• Payroll and Benefits: 70%• Educational expenses : 10%• Administration expenses: 10%• Infrastructural and other expenses: 10%

Clearly, we are spending less on teachers’ salaries than our peer group, and there is a need for us to gradually come up to meet the benchmark. This will mean a calibration of our spending in other areas over the next few years.

Woodstock’s financial situation is sound. As we start to undertake the bold steps outlined in Vision2020, we will continue to strengthen our financial processes and work to maintain accountability as our donors and supporters across the world assist us in this bold pursuit.

2013-2014 Summary

During 2013-2014, Woodstock School maintained its firm commitment to providing the best possible education to young people in the 21st Century. . While our educational success is underpinned by a strong academic focus, our pursuit of operational excellence has enabled us to provide our staff, students and partners the support they need to achieve their goals.

We have continued to make solid progress towards improving our financial health, building on the firm foundation laid in recent years. This has resulted in our ability to comfortably achieve our operational priorities, and even cater to some capital intensive Capex projects. We have strengthened our policies for better use of fee income through fiscal controls and ensured that we spend in areas that need attention while creating processes for better planning, budgeting and reporting. This has resulted in favorable audit reports, hence assuring us that positive outcomes are supported by strong internal controls and good governance. Woodstock School would like to thank its parents, donors, staff, employees and partners for their valued contributions towards our shared success.

Total Allocation of Income from Operations $6,302,100

Payroll and Benefits - $3,525,50056%

Administration - $681,70011%

Infrastructure - $656,60010%

Educational - general - $893,60014%

Capital Expenditure - $544,7009%

Exchange Rate : INR 60/$

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Sumit BasuAkshay BirlaJane CummingsRanjit Kumar DassDr Daphne DeRebelloPeter G. DownsVictor EmmanuelPaulo Guidotti

Friends of Woodstock SchoolTaeyeong JunPeter Allision WildmanJun Sun ParkWilliam AldisSatish KediaGopal SharmaUgen ChozomKazuaki MasumuraJanet RossRahul SuriDick WechterAndrea MitchellWinterline FoundationJillian WilkinsHisayo WatanabeRoxanne Gupta

Members of the Board and General Body

Na Na JeonRehan A. KhanBhavanesh Kumari Dr Jonathan LongRajan S. MathewsDr Kaaren Ruth MathiasDr Eleanor NicholsonMarlin Schoonmaker

Rev Dr Paul SwarupRev Anita TempletonPamela TsheringNoel VaghelaDr Philip A. WellonsEriko Shrestha (Student Rep)Sang Hyun Park (Student Rep)MaryEllen Pesavento (Staff Rep)

Thank You to our Generous Supporters!

Marry Ruth PowellDavid J RughElizabeth B ShellyJ M LandryTerrence L ConnellCatherine E WhitcombDavid K WheelerAlbert S BaumanDr Kaaren Ruth MathiasSt. Olaf CollegeNa Na JeonKathryn Lee Buckner SwansonDaniel Thomas SwansonMarcus ShawMeherjee Boman CassinathImmu B. UniyalPaul H. Hanifl

Harlod M. BergsmaRahul AminS. P. ChelvamNihal Bin IqbalMahavir GolechhaWoodstock School Chapel OfferingLillian SinghDaphne De RebelloNoel VaghelaAjit Nath KalsiAlok PradhanBikramajit Singh SandhuD. E. NisserHarlod M. BergsmaAshoke ChatterjeeMamta Parikh

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Woodstock School

Mussoorie, Uttarakhand248179 India+91 (135) 263 9000www.woodstockschool.in