Letter from our new principal

I am Xiaohe Cao, the new Principal. It is a great honor and privilege to serve Northwest Chinese School (NWCS). Sixteen years ago, a few new immigrants from mainland China founded this non-profit organization. After many years of effort from faculty, staff, board members, parents, students, volunteers, and numerous supporters, our school has become one of the best in the U.S. Today’s success of our school resulted from everyone’s hard work! While we are proud of our past accomplishments in Chinese education, we have also clearly realized that it is also our responsibility to keep working hard to enhance the success of NWCS and make it a harmonious Chinese community in the Greater Seattle Area.During the past couple of months, many parents had been actively involved in finding a new principle of Northwest Chinese School. Many great comments and suggestions were provided by NWCS parents and employees during the open hearing process. I was very pleased to see the passion, frankness, energy, and wisdom demonstrated in the NWCS community during this process. I believe that we can continuously working together to further NWCS’ success.We have many things to accomplish. Among them, improving teaching quality is definitely of common interest and is always on the top of our priority list. I am working with teachers now to make sure that we are well prepared for the new semester. A stable campus is the foundation of our community. We are used to the current school location in Kirkland. It is a great convenient and pleasant campus to have our school for now: close to freeway, large facility, good place for community gathering. The good news is that we had our next school year reserved with the Lake Washington Technical College. I am working with the school board Strategic Development Committee to plan for a longer term campus solution. We have lots of other projects to work with. I will keep you posted. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to let me know. Thank you very much and I am looking forward to working with you!Xiaohe Cao

Have a wonderful summer

What a ride! All I can say is that we are unbelievable. 20000+ hit in less than one month. It truly tells us no one, no one except people of this beloved NWCS are the owner of this school.

We still have a lot of work to do. ZL is still threating us by using her famous tactic. Our new principal and our board need our help and support. To continue this endeavour, I promise to keep you updated via this blog so please come back often whenever you can.

To celebrate our 20000+ hit, I start to compile all famous /infamous documents for you as a souvenir or something you can share during your summer vacation.

I need your input and your recommendations. If you receive any email that we never see before, if it does not violate any of your or other's privacy, you can send to me via dwnwseattle@gmail.com

Have a wonderful summer!

DW

周琳到底该奖，还是该罚？

大家还在讨论是否追回周琳在位时多拿的那部分工资和奖金的同时据说周琳还在跟学校要这个学期奖金。董事会该怎么办？ 你觉得该怎么处理？

Anonymous said...
要求置顶

听说周琳还在问董事会要奖金。请大家讨论，该不该给她发奖金。

是该发奖金，还是该追回她不该得的钱(比如去年暑期)。

爱心校长不拿报酬，学校如何奖励？

曹校长提出不取酬劳，义务为学校服务。学校该如何奖励校长呢？董事会在研究"incentive plan"，老金提出成立校长奖学金，你怎么看？

Jerome Jin said...
Yesterday, the Board picked a new principal for us, starting a new chapter for the NWCS. Let’s all move on by not looking back at what has happened in the past couple of months.

To my surprise and delightfulness, Ms. Cao has decided to take on this important role without pay. I am proud of her for her decision and commitment. In our community, there exists an role model that values volunteer service and personal contribution more than the monetary compensation. Her decision is visionary and more than money can buy. Way to go, Ms. Cao!

With that being said, I am much puzzled by the Board decision as stated in Peter’s last email. Despite of Ms. Cao’s willingness to work for free, now the board insists on considering an“incentive plan” to reward her service. For what purpose? Clearly, Ms. Cao is not money driven. Therefore, I think using money as a mechanism to regard her is an out-dated and inappropriate approach in her case. While Ms. Cao could be worth every penny had she asked for and I have no problem to pay her whatever she deserves for doing a good job, we must cherish Ms. Cao’s high moral standards and honor her aspiration and do something accordingly. Don’t weigh her down with the heavy load of ”incentive plan”! Good in its intention, The Board’s plan, on one hand, reflects us parents’ desire to fairly compensate her for her upcoming valuable service. But on the other, this remarkable individual who has forced us to come up with a new compensation model other than the conventional one now challenges us.

What can we do to recognize her contribution?
I am here again to throw out my idea on the table for discussion and consideration. Why don’t we use the money intended for Ms. Cao to establish a “Principal Scholarship” at NWCS to honor her instead? I look at it this way:
a) Payment for service is fair. But the service recipient tends not to have any feeling of indebtedness afterwards.
b) The scholarship program cherishes a higher moral standard and produces a legacy with lasting effects in the community.
c) The scholarship program will have good ripple effects: recipients could attend the school otherwise they won’t be able to and it sets a good example for students and recipients alike and nurtures them with the same aspiration to give back to the society in the future.

Thanks for your attention!

Congratulations to NWCS, we have our new principal Now

"Dear NWCS Members,

I am excited to announce that the board has chosen Ms. Cao Xiaohe as our next school principal! Please join us to congratulate Ms. Cao and help her and her future team to be successful in our school! The most significance of this hiring is that Ms. Cao decided to take this position as a volunteer position without any base salary. Our board has decided an incentive plan (detailed to be disclosed) to honor her future high performance!

I want to also thank Mr. Zhang Yuehua and other candidates for their contribution to this selection process. I am participating their continuous support!

Thanks!
Peter"

他山之石，可以攻玉

What a similarity. I was totally amazed by this news and can not wait to post it for people who really care of this school. Also, I did a simple search and find some additional news.
http://blog.chinesenewsnet.com/?p=6192
http://blog.chinesenewsnet.com/?p=2277
http://blog.chinesenewsnet.com/?p=1418

So what it teaches us? How we can learn from that fall off? Close the blog? Let financial situation run the course by itself? Keep ZL and pay her according to contract so she will be coorperated? Or fire ZL and do the damage control ASAP? Don't you think our board has done very less damage control in the past month except organizing a principal candidate hearing?
What the top priority our board should do in the next week, month or three months? I think our board is eager to hear from you all.

Here is the original post from our parent, I put the news at the beginning for easy access:
http://www5.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/Forums/BackStage/2007_6_17_22_42_5_215.html

华夏中文学校博根分校查帐风波上法庭多维社记者吕贤修报导／徐小兵律师对多维社指出：华夏中文学校博根分校查帐风波上法庭这个事件，可提醒许多其它华人社团，要知法守法。尤其是非营利组织的帐目，要保持透明。华夏中文学校新泽西博根分校，近日因年度查帐工作，家长理事会会长以“华夏中文学校”名义，将博根分校校长告上法庭。对於此案，原告表示，自己代表全体家长，此举也是给自己一个交代。至於被告，除怀疑对方的代表性，也相信事实会还自己清白。目前，被告已同意交出完整帐目，博根郡高等法院6月28日将为此再度开庭。事件进展，多维将持续追踪。详细见链接：http://www5.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/Forums/BackStage/2007_6_17_22_42_5_215.html
June 17, 2007 9:08 PM
Anonymous said...
他山之石，可以攻玉。报导的新泽西这所中文学校，和西北中文学校发生的情况有着惊人的相似性，都是校长不交账目1财经运作不透明，而且还干涉董事会的选举。不同的是，他们的董事会已经把校长告上法庭。BLOG主人可以看看能否把那条新闻登在主页，也好引以为戒。谢谢。

TOP TEN questions to everyone

Another top 10 from a parent:

非常感谢这个BLOG的主人给大家一个畅所欲言的地方. 希望今后能保留这个BLOG, 能让西北中文学校的家长和老师们能有了一个交流信息, 献计献策的地方.”
I too really appreciate BLOG的主人给大家一个畅所欲言的地方. It has attracted a lot of readers and contributors who posted many constructive ideas, suggestions as well as valid questions and comments for the most part. As BLOG 主人 stated, “We know everyone is caring our children's future, caring our community and like to make this great Chinese school a better place.” IT seems to me that there are still plenty of valid concerns and questions raised by the parents and teachers in this blog that remained unanswered. Yes, we all want to put the saga behind and move on and build a better and brighter future for NWCS and its community it served. But to do so, we all need to fully aware of and understand what and why went wrong in the past. 增加监督和透明性. Based on my reading of comments posted in this blog so far, here is the list of top ten questions we will like to hear answer from the Board and the top ten action items the board should put on its agenda now. Some of them are direct quotes from earlier post comments by others;
TOP TEN questions, in no particular order:
1. What is the most important factor the board considered in making its new principal hiring decision?
2. What issue(s) the board has identified regarding the school payroll and other expenses based on the recent review and audit conducted by the board and outside auditor. And what action the board plan to take to address the issues. “学校的帐户不清（参考5月7日周琳转发的电子邮件）到底是怎么回事？ 我们所有家长和老师要求董事会给我们公开学校账务。
3. What are the PTA fund raising expenses consist of?
4. On what basis did past board handed out HUGH bonus to the principal ZL? “ZhouLin said board acknowledged her work and performance level and gave her bonuses for the first 3 semesters (1.5 years?). If so, what is board expected principal to do (the roles and responsibility), and how is the work of principal measured (balanced budget, reduce tuition, higher parents satisfaction, enrollment number, test passing rate, teacher/student ratio, etc.) What were the factors that board considered to give out bonuses to Zhou Lin?”
5. Did School strictly following not for profit related governing laws and regulations in terms of financial and tax reporting to the federal and state government? i.e. has the registration with the State of Washington been timely renewed yet? Payroll and information tax returns properly and timely filed and can face possible examination and inquiry by the watchdog agencies?
6. Why there are huge cash surplus sitting on the bank in the first place? “Why didn't these money spend on the education of our children? Just because we parents want our children learn Chinese and the culture, so we'd have to pay higher tuition such that they can save these money for God know what for?"
7. Has the past election of board members followed the School Bylaw and met the quantum requirement?
8. Did school admin and board follow the finance guidance to avoid conflict of interest and personal benefit, when dealing with outside venders and suppliers, did reimbursement policy properly followed? “I wonder whether we have some kind of internal control in place so that abuse of power would be prevented. for example, do we have dual signature in place for NWCS checks? or do we have a Finance Committee on the Board that will oversee the financial management of NWCS? do we have someone from the Board/Finance Committee review bank reconciliations?”
9. Why was the School directory consisting of complete list of admin member and teachers taken out of the NWCS webpage?
10. Who is the OWNER of NWCS?

To be continued

Status report from Board

Mail from Board I got yesterday. It seems board is working on many action items but none of those items have a clear timeline.

What is exact this email for? Are you satisfied with this email and status report from board? What do you think the future of NWCS? How many parents will bring their children to this school next year? Many of us have been actively contributing the idea and providing very constructive suggestion for the future of NWCS, but what is the near action item we can provide to board so they can focus on the action rather than strategy?


June 14, 2007

Dear All:

The Board of Directors of NWCS wants to express our sincere gratitude to all of you for actively participating in the Principal Candidate Open Hearing on last Saturday and for continuously supporting NWCS.

We would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on the principal hiring process and other significant issues that the Board is currently working on.

1. New Principal Hiring—we are working with PTA to tabulate and summarize the survey forms. PTA has sent the draft summary to the Board for the survey forms collected on last Saturday. Additional forms from the Seattle campus are being reviewed and tabulated. We expect to receive the final summary shortly, and then the Board will review the results and comments from all the survey forms carefully.

Meanwhile, the Board has been in follow-up communications with the principal candidates. The Board will quickly move to next step for further interview and/or discussion with the candidates, and vote for the principal shortly. We will release the voting result as soon as it is available.

2. Communications with NWCS Teachers—the Board has sent out an open letter to all the teachers expressing appreciation for their hard work and contributions and inviting all the teachers to keep teaching at NWCS in next school year. The Board also established a task force for teacher retention and communication enhancement.

3. Outlining the NWCS Administration Structure and Responsibility—the Board is working on drafting expectations and responsibilities for next NWCS Administration team. The Board is also proactively exploring the strategy and polices for ensuring the smooth operation and expansion of our school.

4. Campus contract/agreement negotiation for both Kirkland and Seattle Campuses—the Board is working hard to set up contact/agreement with Lake Washington Technical College and Gatzert Elementary School in order to secure both campuses for next school year.

We are asking for your continuous support to NWCS and the Board. We are confident that with all of us work together, NWCS will be a better school in the coming years, and our children will have better education and brighter future.


Sincerely,

The NWCS Board

Another Update from Board

Dear NWCS Members,

I am writing this email to give you the latest update on our Principal selection.

1. Thanks to our PTA volunteers! We have completed our survey results from our Open Hearing.
2. The board has been working around the clock to identify the final candidates for our final decision. I am happy to let you know that Cao Xiaohe and Zhang YueHua are our final two candidates. Our interview with them is underway. We hope that we will make our final election in 2-4 days.

Again, thanks for your patience and support!

Thanks!
Peter Huang, Ph.D., PMP
Chair, NWCS Board of Directors

BOARD MEMBER'S DUTY OF TRUST

BOARD MEMBER'S DUTY OF TRUST

Now that the COMPLAINTS regarding the current principal is largely over,(am I right?) some are starting to wonder if the board of directors can learn from past mistakes and some concern that if the board will end up having too much power and abusive it. For everyone to have better understanding of not profit board member's duties discussed on the original post, I am copying a direct quote from Oregon Dept of Justice's "GUIDE TO NO PROFIT BOARD SERVICE" here; and concerned parents and teachers may use it as a good reference to see and judge if our board is acting ethically and legally in the future. Among others,

"---Understanding Your Responsibilities:
In carrying out board responsibilities,, the law generally imposes three duties of trust. They are regularly described as the duties of due care, loyalty to the corporation and obedience to the law.

1.DUTY OF DUE CARE
This responsibility generally requires that a director must discharge the duties with the care an ordinary prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances. --- Directors need not always be right, but they must act with common sense and informed judgment. To exercise this duty properly, boards must pay particular attention to the following:
-Active participation.
A director must actively participate in the management of the organization including attending periodic meetings of the board, evaluating reports, reading minutes and reviewing the performance of the executive director.
-Reasonable inquiry.
Directors should request and receive sufficient information so that they may carry out their responsibilities as directors. When a problem exists or a report on its face does not make sense, a director has a duty to inquire into the surrounding facts and circumstances. The director also has a duty to investigate warnings or reports of officer or employee theft or mismanagement.

2.DUTY OF LOYALTY.
Directors have a duty to give their undivided loyalty to the charitable corporation. Decisions regarding the organization's funds and activities must promote the organization's public purpose rather than private interest. Any potential conflict transactions should be scrutinized closely by the board with the realization that the public will predictably be skeptical of such arrangements. There are some general principles which will serve to guide boards faced with conflict of interest situations.
-Conflicts in general.
While transactions between the charitable corporation and individual board members, their families and businesses they own or operate should be avoided, they are not absolutely prohibited. Under certain circumstances, a contract or transaction between a nonprofit corporation and its director or an organization in which the director has a material or financial interest is acceptable. However, if the transaction is challenged, the director will have the burden of establishing that the contract or transaction is fair and reasonable, that there was full disclosure of the conflict and that the contract or transaction was approved by members or other directors in good faith... The board should only approve the transaction if it is clearly in the best interest of the charity.
-Written policy.
The board should establish a written policy for dealing with conflicts of interest. The policy should address disclosure of financial interest and withdrawal from discussion and voting by interested directors. Due to the sensitivity of conflicts of interest, the board may want to require that transactions benefiting a director may be approved only by a greater than majority vote. Also, requiring an annual disclosure by all board members of their business involvement with the nonprofit organization is recommended.
Loans. In general, a charitable corporation may not lend money to an officer or director. There is one statutory exception. The law allows loans for executive relocation expenses under certain circumstances...

3.DUTY OF OBEDIENCE.
Directors have a duty to follow the organization's governing documents (Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws), to carry out the organization's mission and to ensure that funds are used for lawful purposes. Also, directors must comply with other state and federal laws that relate to the organization and the way in which it conducts its business. For example, directors should be familiar with:
-Federal law.
Charitable corporations usually apply to the Internal Revenue Service for exemption as a tax-exempt organization. Corporations which fail to do so may have their income taxed at normal rates, and contributors to the corporate charity may not be able to deduct their contributions on their income tax returns.
-State law.
In general, charities must register and file an annual financial report with the Attorney General's office... A nonprofit corporation must also file an annual renewal with the Corporation Division of the Secretary of State's office.
-Mission and procedures.
Directors should be familiar with the organization's governing documents and should follow the provisions of those documents. Directors should be sure proper notice is given for meetings, that regular meetings are held, that directors are properly appointed and that the organization's mission is being accomplished.
--"

I am sure all the directors run for and serve in the Board 是真诚的,认真做事的. it is also critically important that all of them are fully aware of his or her rights and obligations, individually and as a team. So that unnecessary mistakes can be prevented while serving the NWSC.

June 15, 2007 3:35 AM

Posted by Nancy Wang

Nancy Wong posted (at a nother topic):

"What Zhoulin said in the election meeting is not true. We have solved the conflict of interest of teacher Xiang and Nancy Wong. Because Teacher’s is not on the payroll anymore. Same issue for the board member SunBenJin has also been solved. This is not the reason Zhoulin has been holding the payroll information. Her excuse was she couldn’t release payroll to board due to privacy reason. She asked board member sign a confidential agreement with her before she could release the information. After we consulted with school lawyer, there shouldn’t be any question for board to obtain financial data including payroll info from her. We then sent final request to her and accountant. Accountant immediately released all payroll info to me. I am doing audit right now. I have report a couple of issues to board. But so far, Board hasn’t decided to release any audit result to school members. If you like to know the details, I will ask board what level of detailed payroll info we can release to public as this is sensitive information. Please send email to dongshi02@nwchinese.org as formal request. I can’t answer questions based on an anonymous message from the blog."

Can you clarify "formal request" when we send email to dongshi02@nwchinese.org? Is it to request the financial report, or to request the release of school financial report?

June 15, 2007 5:37 AM

What should the school do with the huge reserve? by Jerome Jin

JEROME JIN said...
I have been thinking of the money issues at NWCS lately as well. Although I am no accountant, I am only capable of doing some rough arithmetic. I heard different figures regarding the current reserve at NWCS. It is between 300Kand 500K. This huge reserve is sitting in bank doing nothing else except gaining interests. This is against the purpose of charging tuition. We parents pay tuition to NWCS for it to use this resource for an education purpose, not investing. We parents can do much better than the school with the money in our hands for the latter.

What should the school do with the huge reserve?
Option One: Tuition Reduction
Let’s say the current reserve is 300K. Roughly again, the current enrollment is 1,000/year. An average tuition per student is $300/year (an average for Chinese and selective courses plus waivers and scholarships). Its revenue is 300K annually. Let’s say cutting the tuition across the board by 10% = 30K annually. The school will wipe out its current reserve or reduce it to a minimal amount in 10 years. To be conservative, the school can set the newly reduced tuition rate for a few years until it sees a need to readjust it later accordingly. To put bluntly, a minimal reserve attracts few greedy eyes to PREY on it. Even if the school is ended up in the hands of a bad school Admin team, it won’t have much to squander.

Options 2: Scholarship Program
Another way to tap into the current huge reserve for the good cause is to offer scholarships to the general public since ours is a non-profit institution, which is supposed to give back to the community and do public goods with its advantageous taxation status.
The following are a few suggestions for consideration:

1) Setting up a scholarship program exclusively for non-Chinese students, either adults or youth.
Initially, any non-Chinese applicants are eligible regardless their family financial status. Of course, the process should become competitive once there are more applicants than scholarship slots available. There are lots of benefits of doing so. For one, it will give the school a better exposure and a more positive image in the society at large. Another is to insert and mingle the Chinese culture into/with the western culture to promote diversity. To judge success for a Chinese school, nothing speaks better than having its student body with a wide racial background including white, black, Hispanic, Jewish, etc. Who knows? The scholarship program someday might snowball into something big and attract, as a result, many fee paying non-Chinese students to attend NWCS as well. (A side note: I heard in NPR recently that China is sponsoring a Washington State delegation to visit mainland while the state legislature is considering whether Chinese should be offered as a foreign language in the state’s public school system in the near future.)

2) Offering scholarship and assistant program to students from poor families in greater Seattle area.
There is certainly such a need out there. The school could not only waive the tuition for kids from poor families but also provide them with transportation, when their parents have difficulty, either by parent/volunteer or contract arrangement.

The cost of offering scholarship programs could be incidental and marginal since some classes don’t have a full enrollment. Filling up the available empty seats in the classrooms is just like” adding chopsticks without having to add courses at dinner”.

3) Sponsoring X student(s) from China each year to attend UW
Applicant(s) must come from poor family (set some standards such income level, poor regions, etc) or have disabilities that prevent him/her from being accepted by the schools in China despite of his/her academic abilities. The program can require the recipient(s) to teach at NWCS at weekends and in summers in the meantime. UW might even be willing to give a tuition waive so that NWCS would only have to provide costs for airfares, books, food and boarding (or hosted by members in rotation).

The above is what I can think of at the moment. I have tossed out my “stones” on the table for discussion. I again encourage other parents to search deep into their brains and bring out their “jades”.

June 14, 2007 4:41 AM

最新消息

Jerome Jin said...
Hi Every Concerned NWCS Parent,

This is to keep you posted with what’s going on. I have seen some glaring light at the end of the tunnel. I beg for your patience a little longer. In the spirit of transparency and timely communication, I want to share with you hereunder my email exchange with the Board (with the most recent one appearing first).

Board’s reply email to Jerome Jin on June 14th, 2007

“From: Benjing Sun
Sent: Thu 6/14/07 9:52 AM
To: Jerome Jin; board@nwchinese.org (board@nwchinese.org); pta@nwchinese.org (pta@nwchinese.org)

Dear Jerome:

Thank you so much for your continuous support to the Board, and your suggestion is very valuable to us! The Board is drafting a letter to all the NWCS members to update the progress on principal hiring and on other key issues that the Board is currently working on. The letter should be sent out tomorrow or Friday.
Please let us know if you have further suggestions.

Thank you so much!

Benjing Sun, on behalf of
NWCS Board”

Jerome Jin’s email to the Board on 6/13/2007

"From: Jerome Jin
Sent: Wed 6/13/07 8:34 PM
To: board@nwchinese.org (board@nwchinese.org); pta@nwchinese.org

Thanks for your reply. What I did last Saturday was the least I could in my capacity as a concerned parent. I wanted to help the school to get over this difficult time and pull it back on the right track.

I know the Board and PTA are working hard behind the scene at the moment. Your attention is on hiring a new principal and getting it done right. But some parents are still very skeptical about you and your process. It’d be a good gesture and encouraging signal if the Board can say something to its members. Since NWCSSAGA blog attracts a big following, it won’t hurt to inform us parents of what you are doing right now. Silence works against the interests of the Board.
Good luck with your speedy process of the survey results.

Yours sincerely and hopefully,

Jerome Jin”

The Board’s email to Jerome Jin on 6/13/2007:

“Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:36:29 -0700
From: board@nwchinese.org

Subject: Re: FW: My Post Public Hearing Suggestion

Dear Jerome,

Thank you very much for your constructive idea and help on the open hearing.

School PTA is currently summarizing the evaluation forms. The result will be sent to board as soon as their finished their work. Board will use the data as a reference in school principal selection.

Board will discuss how we will notify our parents as soon as we receive the data.

Regards,

NWCS Board”

June 14, 2007 9:19 PM

家长的呼吁

Anonymous said...
"董事会的人都认为发信不应该，我也一样同意。可是你们该做事的时候干什么了？现在又是，这么多天了，周六的结果也不公布，学校这么多事情有待于解决，帐是否清楚也没个交待，却忙着找匿名信的人，他们到底在做什么?"

Seriously, there are sitll quite a lot of parents and teachers who care about the future of this School also wondering if the current board is getting the priority straight?!

It is very dispointing that the board has not providing the public the result of financial inquiry and audit. Why the board cannot take the steps needed to get the detail financial data from the admininistration is really beyond my compenhensation. The explanation provided in the board's last letter (6/1/2007) with subject line of "Clarifications -- Please read" sent to the NWCS community makes little sense, in my humble opinion. Can anyone with some legal, accounting or management background or experience, explained to us, why is the board, as a governing body of NWCS, cannot access the payroll data from the prinicipal? according the 6/1 letter, quote: "Due to privacy considerations, the Board and Zhou Lin agreed to a) obtain consent from each teacher to release his/her Payroll data: b) seek professional legal advice on how to deal with this issue. We will proceed according to the professional legal guidance." Can Board now tell us according to "professinal legal guidance", what information the board cannot obtain from the principal? Under the current by-law and financial guidance posted on the NWCS website, which provsion expressly exclude other board memebers to review the detail fianacial data from the school adminsatration as the 6/1 letter stated?, again quote, "3. Only Nancy Wong from the Board will have the privilege to view any Payroll related data in our Board and the data will be protected securely." we all know at the 6/9 public hearing, the principal stated that she refused to hand over the detailed books and records to treasurer Nancy wong because her parent was being paid by the school"; but why other board members cannot take over Nancy's duty in this particular instance? it really puzzled me. as a regular parent became aware of the school's current chao, I visited this board looking for some meaningful discussions and answers which address our school's urgent issues. I see some good positive ideas and proposals on how to improve our school, but have not seem anyone answer the questions/issued mentioned above. Can any of our talented parents and teachers out there please provide people like me some professional explanation and response on the questions above?

As for the principal hiring, if the Board, after careful consideration of relevant factors concluded that there is not well qualified person suitable for the job among existing canditates, please communicate with parents and teachers timely and take prompt steps to solicit more candidates from the public. Spending all the valuable time, energy and resources tracking down those anonymous emails, though in rare instance may be justified and warranted, would not solve urgent needs NWCS faces.

I am worry that the Board's lack of timely action(s) will risk The Board losing the whatever trust and patience the parents and teachers may still have. It would not be surprised to see the disappointed parents and teachers opted for other schools come next fall, if they sense that the leadership of the NWCS are not taking the right steps addressing the Schools urgent problems.

Again, I strongly urge the Board memebers take some time to review the wealth of informaton available online regarding the legal and ethical duties a No For Profit organization director should poss and ask himself or herself why you run for the board in the first place.

It is really sad to witness the wonderful NWCS community getting into current mess and feel helpless...

June 14, 2007 8:31 PM

INTERNAL CONTROL ISSUE--CONTINUED

INTERNAL CONTROL ISSUE--CONTINUED

In addition to financial control discussed yesterday, other aspects listed below need to be addressed also:
--- Various Roles in the NWCS
There should be written job descriptions for BOD, present, staffs and volunteers. The work of NWCS will be more easily accomplished and problems will be avoided if all involved understand what is expected of them and the limits of their authority.
A comprehensive description of the president’s job should make clear his or her responsibilities in the day-to-day activities of the school and set forth exactly what information is expected by the board and when it must be communicated. For example, if the board expects monthly or quarterly financial reports and programmatic reports, making those expectations clear from the beginning will avoid ambiguity and will clarify the responsibility for accountability to the board.
Similarly, teachers and staffs should have written job descriptions and be advised of what is expected of them. PTA and its volunteers are no exception. The role of PTA need to be clearly defined and its volunteer members should be given job descriptions that clearly describe what is expected of them. Volunteers are indispensable part of NWCS’s function and their hard works are really appreciated. However, if any of them do not understand his or her responsibilities or do not act professionally, the school could be at risk too.
--- Personnel Policies and Training
Personnel policies for teachers and admin staffs, including benefits, evaluations, ordinary and bonus compensation, conflicts of interest and code of ethics, and grievance procedures (including protections for “whistle blowers”) should be in writing and given to all employees prior to hiring, with changes in policies communicated on a regular basis. (My uderstanding is that NWCS already have employee handbook, I would assume it already covered what is discussed above.) As Appropriate training should be arranged for all involved. New directors, officers, employees and volunteers should be trained by those who are familiar with the school operations. For all involved, familiarity with the school’s internal controls is essential.
--- Conflicts of Interest Policies and Code of Ethics
BOD, Presidents and other key personnel should not have any personal or business interest that may conflict with their responsibilities to NWCS. To avoid such conflicts, it is wise to have a “conflicts of interest policy” that clearly states the procedures to be followed if a board member’s personal or financial interests may be advanced by an action of the board. The conflicts of interest policy should require an individual to fully disclose any interest the individual and/or the individual’s family has in any entity that does business with the NWCS and that any change in the information concerning potential conflicts should be provided to the BOD immediately. The policy may be set forth in NWCS’s by-laws. The policy must require that such individual may not participate in any decision to approve doing business with the individual or any entity in which the individual has an interest, and such decision must be made by a disinterested majority of BOD. NWCS should also have a code of ethics addressing issues such as transparency, disclosure in fundraising solicitations, and integrity in governance. The BOD may need to consult with professional such as attorneys and auditors prior to adoption of such policies.
All board members, employees, volunteers and others should be given copies of both policies and sign a statement acknowledging that they have read them.

In sum, we DO have lots of devoted BODs, employees and parent volunteeers who really care about our school and have been working dilligently and contributing to the success of NWC. I admire them! Like other parents,I just hope that with better internal control system in place, we can avoid unnecessry conflicts and disputes in the future. Let us united and work together to rebuilt trust, understanding among NWCS community, for the NWCS's noble mission!

June 13, 2007 6:14 AM

For thosw who truely cares: INTERAL CONTROL ISSUE

Anonymous said...

INTERAL CONTROL ISSUE.
As others has mentioned before in this blog, The key to prevent any similar accidents and controversy we currently facing is to improve the internal control and “Check and Balance” mechanism within NWSC organization. NWSC need to revise its by-law and financial guidelines to better protect its assets, assist in its proper management and prevent potential abuse of power or corruption by any individuals. With this goal in mind, I hope the new BOD will consider setting up and implementing some of following financial control measures to monitor and record assets received, held and expended.
These financial controls should be described in an accounting policies and procedures manual. The manual should be reviewed with and given to all directors and Administrative staffs, employees and volunteers. It may include procedures for:
º Preparing an annual income and expense budget and periodic reports – at least each semester preferably monthly - comparing actual receipts and expenditures to the budget with timely variance explanations.
º Writing and signing checks or vouchers and receiving, recording, securing and depositing cash and other receipts. Such procedures should ensure that no single individual is responsible for receiving, recording and depositing funds or writing and signing checks.
º Ensuring that tuitions, fees and contributions received are properly recorded, accountings required as a condition of any contribution are completed and restrictions on the use of such funds, such as contributions given for a restricted purpose (e.g. scholarships, classroom funds), are obeyed.
º Requisitioning, authorizing, verifying, recording and monitoring all expenditures,
including payment of invoices, petty cash and other expenditures. Such procedures should ensure that no single individual is permitted to request, authorize, verify and record expenditures. For example, the same person should not be responsible for cash disbursements and bank reconciliations. These functions should be assigned to different individuals.
ºProviding for regular oversight by an audit committee or, if there is no audit committee, by the board of directors itself.
º Reporting to the audit committee or board by employees and volunteers of allegations of fraud or financial improprieties.
º Ensuring that timely and appropriate financial reports are distributed to all directors and reviewed by them, as well as the president and treasurer.
º Providing procedures for approving contracts to which the organization is a party,including securing competitive bids from vendors.
º Making clear the responsibility of all individuals involved with the organization, including the board of directors, employees, volunteers and consultants, maintaining an organizational chart and updating such information as necessary.
º Developing a prudent investment strategy and providing proper oversight of the investment assets. i.e CDs.
º Complying with governmental and other reporting requirements, including watchdog agencies.
º Complying with obligations to members, employees and the public, including their right to view NWSC's tax return.
----

June 12, 2007 8:26 PM

For the sake of our kids

We have a great pool of talented parents here. So I think the best way for avoiding the conflict and complaining is try to call these parents participating more and more. Show up from the shadow, at least positively in voting the board members, so the competent members really represent parents, students, and school, instead of some person without any ability. We trust a functional board will select a competent, creative principal for us.

Second, to avoid the mess, the principal should not have the right to control both the human resources and money. Her/His responsibility is to raise the good proposal for the board, once the board agreed, the proposal has to be performed accordingly. No any secret hiding, the most qualified teacher should get the best pay. not qualified person has to be replaced for the sake of our kids. All the money flow should be open to the accounting person in the admin and the board members. In fact the money flow should be monitored by these person. What's the "privacy"?"what's the interest conflict? The transparancy is the only way to avoid this kind of issue, and that is the only way to make the school money flow running in the normal track. A reasonable cash flow is a must for school for sure, but there must be something wrong behind an unnormal phenomenon. That will cause someone to lie. And that will raise a series of problem, like huge amount CD.

So I call those talented parents again to involve more about the school issues, at least in selecting the board members, and the principal, because they are representing us to make the decissions. They should be real qualified person to deal with the school issues. Most importantly, they must know who they are!!!

For the sake of our kids.

Concerned parent.

非盈利机构的Cash in flow

Anonymous said...
If there is no better channel to investing the earned capital into meaningful charitable activity, the conservative way is to reduce the tuition for sure, I fully agree.

Practically, the Break-even analysis should be performed first, this is also why the Pro Forma Statement of Operation needs to be constructed by new management team as I mentioned in the suggestions of Principal Election Process.

The main source of cash inflow of the School is Tuition, and outflow is Payroll/Labor Cost and related Admin Expense. Activities primarily are cash based, even accounting method is Accrual, so Break-even could be analyzed through the model as follows:

Cash in flow: Tuition (ignore other revenue at this point)


Cash out flow:
1. Payroll and related taxes (FICA, FUTA, etc)

2. Direct Labor and Indirect Labor (Contractors)

3. SG&A Expense (Rent,Utilities,Communications,Ads,etc.)

Break-even:

Cash In Flow = Cash Out Flow


Rate of Tuition * Numbers of Projected Students = Total projected expense
Rate of Tuition = Total Projected Expenses/Total Projected Students



This is just a simple model, I know we have 2 rates, one for Chinese, another for Elective, we need to do in-depth analysis accordingly.

In addition, there are different scenarios, such as, numbers of students with discount, sponsorship,schoolarship, so sensitivity analysis is mandatory too.

There are a lot we can do to make this school's operation more efficiently, reasonably and fairly.

June 12, 2007 8:34 AM 待续

关于孙本经在六月九日听证会的结束语的评论

Anonymous said...
to quote L. Chen, as a public figure at NWCS Sun Benjing should be cautious about what he says at the Open Hearing. When he accused those parents of wrong doing, he was not speaking in the capacity of a Board Member. it was only his own personal opinion.


Anonymous said...
All taxpayers has the indisputable right to put forward inquiries to taxpayer funded non-profit organization, including on its staffs misconduct happened anywhere regardless. Sun BenJing's condemanation representing the board to taxpayer's basic right is flatly wrong! His on 6.9 already generated discontents among parents. He has damaged his and board's reputation

Let's demand Sun BenJing to explain.

Also, Sun representing the board condenmed annoymous mails. USA's First Amendment specially protect anonymous email. Sun is flatly wrong on this too!. Do we deserve some explanation from the board and Sun himself? You bet.

It is the time the board and all the NWCS need to be honest to itself and to the public. No more hiding and no more lying.


Anonymous said...
I support the letter to LWTC. Logically, any tax payer should not tolerate public school (LWTC) staff having morality issues.

Sending letter to LWTC is a the right thing to do.




Anonymous said...
The board's stand is that if anyone sends the letter outside of NWCS, it is showing our dirty laundry.




Anonymous said...
Then wash it. Unfortunately, the board, under those sold-out members, failed to clear our dirty laundry.

Sun Ben Jing is one of the soul sold-out guy.


Anonymous said...
＂ support the letter to LWTC. Logically, any tax payer should not tolerate public school (LWTC) staff having morality issues.

Sending letter to LWTC is a the right thing to do.
＂
Totally agree. Zhoulin had done enough for prove who she is. Any responsible tax payer could done it. I wish that I was the one.

Anonymous said...
"（白：孙本经昨天大可不必那么激动，我丝毫看不出此事对中文学校有什么损害）"

Jerome' s Open Hearing Suggestion to the Board

Jerome Jin said...
My Post Open Hearing Suggestion to the Board

As and like a “lone farmer”(农村单干户), nobody is capable of tilling NWCS this large piece of land all by him/herself. I am here to call on all capable and willing parents to step out of the “shadow” and to contribute their shares to the recovery (or rebuilding) of our school for the sake of our kids and community. To “entice other’s jades by throwing out my own stones”, I hereunder make public my post open hearing suggestion to the Board. My hope is to encourage transparency and promote participation with a hope to channel the currently divided NWCS back to a forever united community once for all and keeping it that way for good.
The following is my entire text:

“Dear Board,

NWCS was very much in my thought over the weekend. Trying to help the Board start winning back its trust from and restoring its integrity and accountabilities among its members, I am here taking the liberty in suggesting to that the Board should, as a first step, inform its members of the following numbers immediately (if not possible, set a deadline when the info will be available):
1) total forms issued
2) total forms returned
3) total forms which are valid per regulations (with reasons)
4) total forms which are invalid per regulations (with reasons)

Since tallying these numbers is much faster and easier to accomplish than to evaluate each and every form, the Board should NOT sit on them and keep its members waiting. When released, the above info has no bearing whatsoever on any sensitive issues and won’t stir up any troubles for the Board or among the members. The benefits of so doing are: a) to keep its members abreast with what’s going on behind the scene; and b) to show Board’s sincerity of doing things right from here onwards. Failing to do so, in my humble option, the Board would, intentionally or not, continue to allow its members to guess and speculate, thus further alienating its members and losing more confidence (should there be still any bit left) from its assembly. As for whether to release the evaluation results or not, if yes but to what extent and at what level, the Board could use its discretion and best judgments. However, the Board MUST let its reasons to be known to its members once its decisions are made for whatever its rationales. Keeping its members in dark just WON’T work and would, on contrary, usher in more disasters and turmoil, which the history has already proved.

Please excuse me for being so pushy. But I think this would start the healing process and do much good for the school and its members, ultimately even for the Board itself.

Thanks!
Jerome Jin"

PS:
By the way, the forms were collected on the spot at LWTC on June 9th, 2007. I emailed the board before 9a.m. this morning (Monday, June 11, 2007) the following:
1) Total forms claimed by members at Kirkland main campus
2) Total forms issued to Seattle branch to be claimed by members there
3) Total forms unused and remaining at my possession
4) Serial numbers of the forms that should be considered as valid.

June 11, 2007 1:51 PM

张大悠的总结

周六在LWTC大厅看到周琳的母亲，她憔悴且无精打采的样子让我心里很不是滋味。是啊，这些天她该多上火，多难过。可这都能怪谁呢？

"最后一天观周琳

整个听证会,我看到的是一个凄凉的周琳，是一个耗干了斗志还撑着面子的周琳。她毫无意义的自述显得那样无力。她最后与王南希的狡辩，再次还原出她个人的秉性，这可能是她最后一次争辩。

我所能想到的历届中文学校校长，都与校领导机构有些咯咯碰碰，离开学校时未免灰溜溜的，但没有哪个校长走得象周琳这样惨，她是在一片唾骂声中离去，最后一封匿名信竟将她送到了LWTC 和洲教育部门（白：孙本经昨天大可不必那么激动，我丝毫看不出此事对中文学校有什么损害），她一定为此叫怨，诅咒那众多的匿名信，但她可能永远不明白的是：她为什么落到今天千夫所指的地步，“赢人心者，赢天下”是古往今来不变的真理，你的人心哪里去了？

自私，自大，自傲，缺少高等教育，缺少做人处事的基本常识，缺少领导者应有的素质，是她走到今天的内动力，在校长这个重要位置上，她不懂团结广大家长，弃舍小利，以图大利，不懂“大道之行也，天下为公”的道理，不懂尊重集体领导，进而藐视董事会，我行我素，对教师顺我者昌，逆我者亡，关起门来做皇帝，最终落下‘多行不义必自毙’结局。而另一方面，一些居心叵测的人是将周琳引入深渊的幕后推手，这些人有的是周琳小恩小惠的受益者，拿了人家的就手软，不办事，心不安。有的自封中文学校元老，自认对学校运作有着左右风云的影响力，只因做了点儿义工就了不起，他们狎周琳逼董事会，打乱正常领导程序，以‘为了学校好’为名替周琳鼓噪，是这股阴风吹起了周琳的斜火，使她肆无忌惮，有恃无恐，一步步走向自毙的深渊。试想，五月七日晚，如果没有现任董事胡志华先生的一通电话，周校长一定睡个安稳觉，第二天精神焕发去找死党，拉选票，呛董事会，我等也不会说什么，说不定昨天的听证会选票会一边倒向周校长，再干两年校长顺理成章。现在，我真真感受到周琳昨天连说后悔时的份量，这才是真情吐露，肺腑之言。胡志华，我们校长有今天，你罪责难逃！明知校长无脑无判断力，还偏偏将她推入火坑，千古罪人啊！

看到周琳那么一个天真无邪的老姑娘，让人玩弄于掌股之间，最终落得这样的下场，不禁动了我恻隐之心，好可怜的周琳！

- 张大悠

"

GoodWill 营运模式

Anonymous said...
以GOODWILL 为例,它的营运模式是:

接受捐赠-简单清洗,修复或加工-零售店销售-现金入帐-用于就业培训

在这一过程中,首先为残疾人或弱智者提供适合他们能力水平的职业,解决社会问题;然后收入资金后,提供对待业人员(主要是低收入职业)的免费培训,培训后或自身吸收,或推向社会.

而我认为我们中文学校在非赢利组织的营运模式上不是很清晰:

收入学费-转播中文知识-回馈社会(投资于华语文化有关的事业)???

这一过程中解决了一些华人同胞的第二职业问题,对他们经济上有所帮助,但是资金进入后,并没有用于公益事业,而带来更大的物质和社会效益,这是为什么造成相对学校规模的大额现金存款,也是为什么现任管理集团认为学校底子厚,对工资,费用使用不严的原因之一.

如果按资金流通的规律办事,任何企,事业的管理层都不会觉得自己钱太多了.

待续..

最后一封匿名信

似乎这就是孙本经昨天提到的那封信。

“Memorandum
Re: Ms Zhou Lin’s Moral Degeneration
To: Administration, Lake Washington Technical College
June 7, 2007
Dear President Mr. Mike Melted and LWTC Administration:
We are a group of parents of Northwest Chinese School (NWCS – a non-profit weekend Chinese language school). Ms. Zhou Lin (your employee) is the current principal of the NWCS. Ms. Zhou had committed misconduct to have abused the school property by altering and forwarding email to all parents of NWCS which caused month long confusion and mistrust in the school.
Though, Ms. Zhou has reluctantly extended apology a month after the misconduct, her apology is far from sincere, which unveiled her integrity issue. In the apology, she worded “… under stress I have unintentionally merged selective message from two email trains. …. “ . Our opinion is that Ms. Zhou has trouble to tell the truth, at a minimum.
Though, she committed the misconduct in NWCS domain, we believe that it is important to inform you since you are a Washington State public school, a place where misconduct by abusing public propriety and lack of integrity are strictly prohibited. We expect that all of your employees and officers should have higher bar in integrity and morality to enable that our next generation is well educated. As such, as a non-profit, on state funding education institute, your staffs morality is paramount important. We recommend you to investigate Ms. Zhou’s conduct in your school as an education administrator so to ensure your school staffs have the highest ethic standard.
Please contact the board of NWCS to acquire the board’s direct formal criticism/conclusion on Ms. Zhou’s misconduct.
NWCS Board announcement to all members of NWCS on this incident is in the appendix.
For further questions, please contact board@nwchinese.org and admin@nwchinese.org
Looking forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Group of Parents of NWCS
CC: SBCTC - Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; State Board of Education; Ms. Zhou Lin
P.S.: Apology in advance that we have remained anonymous for now.
Appendix:
Dear NWCS parents and teachers,

I am writing on behalf of the Board to close out an issue happened on May 7th at 8:42PM when our Principal, Lin Zhou, used School Admin Account sending an email entitled "Note to the NWCS parents: please take a look at those emails" to all NWCS members which exposed an on-going discussion among board members and a small group of parents. The Board has privately criticized Zhou Lin for what she did, because she set a precedent in the school. Although the discussion among a small group of less than 30 parents and the Board is not confidential to all parents, the inappropriateness of Lin's action includes: 1) using our School Admin Email Account to forward such a discussion to about over 1000 members without prior consultation to the Board; 2) forwarding the messages with no introduction or explanation of the topics under discussion and with no signature line; and 3) forwarding edited information that triggered confusions and mistrust.

We are happy to see that Lin Zhou has admitted her mistake and apologized to related party, the school and the Board. She also promised not to repeat this kind of mistake again in the future. The board has accepted her apology and decided to close this issue. Admittedly, the Board has not handled the entire incident in an optimal way during the past month. Let's all put this incident behind us and move forward to build a better school for our children and community. Now, the board and the school are focusing on finishing this semester and starting to operate the summer program. I, hereby, call actions to all members to continue working hard with our teachers, the admin team, and the board to open the next page of our school.

I want to call for re-focus on our volunteerism and promoting Chinese language and culture. Your participation in our school at all levels are much needed and appreciated.
Thanks!
Peter Huang, Ph.D., PMP
Chair, NWCS Board of Directors ”

金建荣(Jerome Jin) said...

作为一个家长我非常感谢小金和他提到的这些家长，刘斌，梁路平，李鸣歧,谢红,许敏，王天玉和林志伟等人和一些不知名的家长让昨天的会议顺利有序的进行。我认为小金的话说得很好，我们大家都应该支持中文学校。 大家同心协力“使其成为咱们华人社区人人都能引以为豪的育才之地”.


金建荣(Jerome Jin) said...

“抽空上一下网,不看不知道,一看可吓一跳.数人对我的评估确是言过其实了,本人受之有愧.作为学生的家长,平时没为学校出什么力.此番看到学校陷入到如此心痛的地步,我仅仅凭自己的所知,对周六校长候选人评议表的发放提了个建议,当其被采纳后出了份力,纯属做家长而应尽的义务.其实,此事能顺利地操作完全离不开大家的支持和帮助.借此机会,我要感谢董事会和PTA采纳并支持我的建议;感谢校方和刘斌提供了学生名单;感谢梁路平按要求给表格编上了号码;感谢李鸣歧,谢红,许敏和陈燕华.负责发放表格;感谢梁路平,王天玉和林志伟等人负责收集表格.(除个别人外,我都不认识以上的诸位家长,若有漏写误写姓名,请原谅.)同时也希望和呼吁,从此会有更多的家长来关心和支持咱们的中文学校,把它越办越好,使其成为咱们华人社区人人都能引以为豪的育才之地.”

感谢Jeromy Jin

今天的选举是我见过的中文学校最规范，最专业最公平的一次。

Jeromy不光提出这么好的建议，而且亲自履行，使得整个过程井井有条，非常有秩序. 所有的家长都赞不绝口。 从董事会发出真是通知到今天不过几天时间，决定采用Jeromy的提议也不过是一两天的事。 在这么短的时间内能做的没有一定的能力，经验和头脑是不可能地。感谢Jeromy的同时我非常遗憾这么好的人才不是董事会成员。

借这个网对老金同志表示我的感谢和敬意。衷心希望Jeromy能严肃地考虑为学校做更多的奉献。

各位家长，敬请留意中文学校以下事实

请大家不要忘记参加今天的听证会。 会议时间是11点到1点，地点为Kirkland主校址的餐厅。

各位家长，敬请留意中文学校以下事实:


1． 在现任校长周琳任职之前，中文学校历经十年，逐步发展成长，在校生已达近千人次。中文学校已经被 accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS). Source: http://www.nwchinese.org。中文学校已有一个运行良好的行政管理体制。周琳在她的简历中所讲：first time established a functional school management team 不符实。


2． 自周琳担任校长以来，在学生人数并没增加多少（约170人)的情况下，已先后增加了:

a. 两个副校长职位;
b. 还计划另增添一名行政副校长；
c. 一名专管email的assistant；
d. 一名专管e-magazine 的专职人员；



3． 学校现有教师约79人，工资支出每学期约为$5.6万。平均每名教师每学期收入约为$700；学校现有行政人员约6人，工资支出每学期约为$1.17万。平均每名行政人员（不包括校长）每学期收入约为$2,000。Source: http://www.nwchinese.org fall semester financial statement


4． 去年学校为期十周的署期班(每天十一小时)，周琳作为summer program 的 general manager, 一共在三个校区的时间加起来不足8小时，却拿走近一万元的报 酬(工资加奖金)。

周琳在去年署期班的平均每小时收入约为 $1,250。



5． 去年学校署期班的纯利润约为$9,000。 仅仅是2005年summer program 的纯利润(约$27,000) 的1/3. 今年署期班更是难以为继，至今只能勉强开出一个校区。


6． 现任校长周琳利用学校电子邮件在未经董事会和当事人同意的情况下，把她与董事及22人家长团来往关于学校的问题的讨论信件加以删改后发给全校家长。在全体家长一再质问下，一个月后终于在法律的压力下道歉认错。http://nwcssaga.blogspot.com/

From Board

Although I do not agree with the resolution of Board's decision and message below as the owner of this blog. In the spririt of this blog, I post this per Board Chairman's request.


Dear NWCS parents and teachers,



I am writing on behalf of the Board to close out an issue happened on May 7th at 8:42PM when our Principal, Lin Zhou, used School Admin Account sending an email entitled "Note to the NWCS parents: please take a look at those emails" to all NWCS members which exposed an on-going discussion among board members and a small group of parents. The Board has privately criticized Zhou Lin for what she did, because she set a precedent in the school. Although the discussion among a small group of less than 30 parents and the Board is not confidential to all parents, the inappropriateness of Lin's action includes: 1) using our School Admin Email Account to forward such a discussion to about over 1000 members without prior consultation to the Board; 2) forwarding the messages with no introduction or explanation of the topics under discussion and with no signature line; and 3) forwarding edited information that triggered confusions and mistrust.
We are happy to see that Lin Zhou has admitted her mistake and apologized to related party, the school and the Board. She also promised not to repeat this kind of mistake again in the future. The board has accepted her apology and decided to close this issue. Admittedly, the Board has not handled the entire incident in an optimal way during the past month. Let's all put this incident behind us and move forward to build a better school for our children and community. Now, the board and the school are focusing on finishing this semester and starting to operate the summer program. I, hereby, call actions to all members to continue working hard with our teachers, the admin team, and the board to open the next page of our school. I want to call for re-focus on our volunteerism and promoting Chinese language and culture. Your participation in our school at all levels are much needed and appreciated.

Thanks!

Peter Huang, Ph.D., PMP
Chair, NWCS Board of Directors

抛砖引玉吧

From parent:

读了中文学校的博客,被大多数人的参与精神所感动.一直认为中文学校是一个藏龙卧虎龙腾虎跃的地方,所以能力有限的自己对中文学校的事情一直很少过问,只是力所能及的在女儿的班里帮帮忙.最近中文学校的事情纷纷扬扬,有的家长在博客里号召大家积极参与,献计献策.想想很有道理.西北中文学校作为学习中国文化,传播中国文化,弘扬中国文化在西雅图地区搭起的平台,我们应该积极得参与监督尽力建好,否则把孩子们送来我们做家长的是否有些失职.
听来看去现在中文学校的问题是否可以由以下几点入手解决:

1,明确Board, Admin 和PTA 的关系和作用.
Board成员应有多数家长选举产生(这就是说家长们都要参与才会产生代表家长们利益的Board).Board应担负着任免监督Admin的职责,要避免和Admin有利益关系.
Admin应是代表家长(学校)利益的Board为保证学校的正常运营,以有给的方式招聘的管理人员.(在不久以前我想有许多家长和我一样以为除了教师们象征性的有点收入以外,其他人员都是做公益事业的义工,从心底敬仰他们呢.)所以Board应对Admin有绝对的监督权和适时的任免权.
PTA顾名思义是家长们和老师们之间的纽带,在帮助老师们完成教学任务的同时代表着家长们起着 ”Watch Dog”的作用.集资是PTA的另一重任,集到的资金为学生为学校或者为社会公益事业做了什么事情应有明确的交代,万不可以集资3万8集资花费3万7一了了之给他人留有遐想余地,干了好事最好和大家分享一下.

2.招聘有爱心愿奉献的人进Admin
君子爱财,无可厚非,但要取之有道.
西北中文学校作为孩子们学习中国文化,华人文化交流聚集的社团应以办好教学, 文化交流,发展壮大为主不应该成为个人淘金的地方,因为西北中文学校这个平台是西雅图地区广大热爱中国文化的人们共筑的.如果有人认为自己能力很强自己的时间很贵重,那么最好的办法是自己另外起灶搭台大显身手,成功的先例大家有目共睹.是块金子在哪儿都能放光不是.

3.净化教师队伍
我们有非常优秀且热爱我们孩子的老师,所以我们的孩子才愿意来学中文,我们的家长才不计酬劳的在各个班级帮忙.
由于学校出现了一些问题,有很多老师认为得到了不公证的待遇是很可以理解的,但是请老师千万不要以此释放到教学上,对不起孩子们就过了.说到底我们大部分老师不也是为了爱好和奉献来教孩子们的吗.

4.加强财务监督实施透明管理.
西北中文学校的家底爆了光 对于计算功底雄厚的家长们来说,学校的财务收支瞬间脑中就会成型:约千名学生年进饷……,支出老师和校舍的开支……,支出Admin的工资……算下来怎么也应是绿字,可怎么就变成了红的呢……,对了还让高年纪的每个学生买了”语文报”,图书馆可供租借的电影书籍也越来越丰富,为庆祝春节停课两周准备了丰富多彩的节目门票售价$……PTA还成功的集资……家长们的遐想空间越来越大,难免的猜想和流言就会活跃起来.如其让留言蜚语玷污管理团队的廉洁,加强财务透明度让大家都明明白白为好. 西北中文学校不是有自己的网站和e-news吗.

说来说去也许有人会说光讲奉献透明没有好处谁干啊,那您千万歇好.我想大部分家长还是有能力有爱心和见义勇为的,三个臭皮匠怎么着也能顶个诸葛亮吧.


谢谢你的时间.
于丽萍

Jeromy Jin is going to volunteering to get the numbering machine

This is from Jeromy. Please read this and post your thought



"Thanks for responding to my suggestion positively. Numbering the forms could be done easily either by:
1) writing in by hand one by one or
2) using a hand-held automatic numbering machine, which is sold at Staples, to accomplish it.

If nobody objects, I am volunteering to get the numbering machine and have the forms properly numbered on Saturday morning. I just need to have someone bring the printed forms to the school's cafeteria by 9 and I should have them done in time for the meeting.

To distribute the forms properly and ensure one survey form per family, I am suggesting that PTA recruit a dozen or so parent volunteers and acquire student names listed by class/grade in advance. The volunteers will be pre-assigned per class/grade and given the number of forms matching the number of students on each given list. Each parent can claim a form per his/her kid's class/grade from the volunteer, who will then cross out the name of the student once his/her parent has got the form. (Any unclaimed forms must be returned at the end of the meeting.) This can be done pretty quickly as the volunteers will work simultaneously. The keys for its success are:
a) recruiting enough volunteers in advance and pre-assigning them to classes/grades per student name list;
b) getting student name lists by classes/grades from Admin;
c) making signs (such as Grade 1A, etc) which will direct parents to appropriate tables to get the forms; and
d) asking the school Admin staff to cross out on the lists the name(s) of any younger sibling(s) whose parents will claim the form under their first child’s name. This last measure will prevent us from giving out more than one form to any family. (This may not be an issue if the number is not too significant.)

Let’s work together to have the process done correctly and to minimize any potential skepticism and misunderstanding!

Jerome Jin"
(Dated 5p.m. June 7th, 2007)

PS: Please come to NWCS cefeteria by 10:30a.m. this coming Saturday in case volunteers are in need to assist the process. Thanks!

A parent's proposals

This is left by an anonymous parent which deseveres everyone's attention.


Agree that BOD meeting should be open with advance announcement. Also when BOD decides to ask/hire/invite some people outside the board to do things vital to NWCS like "leading the effort to get our Open Hearing logistics together", announcement should made BEFORE their work with brief explanation about why they are chosen and whether they are paid or not, certainly NOT AFTERFACT. This at least would eliminate legitimacy problems caused by secrecy.

Many people have been volunteering in NWCS. Some are visible (like June Hu, some of 22 concerned parents, and others). But majority of them are invisible. However if it means you have more say about how to govern the NWCS because you volunteer more or just in merely more visible way, your MOTIVATION of volunteerism become questionable. In my eyes, that TAINTs the spirit of volunteerism.

Another thing we should look at is the payroll list. I do think payroll list should be PUBLICIZED every half year. Information should include name with simple explanation about what position he/she holds in NWCS. The exact compensations of any key employees like Principal, Vice Principals, Treasurers etc. should also be publicized. Also BOD should make any contract work (like accounting, cleaning, etc.) public. We used to have information about names of teachers for each class and names of administration members as well as BOD members's names available Online. Why has it stopped for last two years? Can we restore that?

In conclusion, TRANSPARENCY and COMMUICATION are the key issues here. If we make sure transparency of governing NWCS and constant commuication with total members of NWCS, it would help to eliminate any misunderstanding, so called "22 concerned parents" issue and "throwing tantrum" behavior.

There is a email calling for "some tangible proposals". In summary, I give my proposals:

1. BOD meeting should be open with ADVANCED announcement.

2. Payroll list (with names and exact compensations for key employees) should be publicized.

In the end, I thank every teacher/staff for his/her deligent work to teach our kids and all volunteers to keep NWCS going.

Let's hear what L Chen and Charles Ma have to say to the

Here are couple of email replies from parents of NWCS to some of the member of the 22 parent group ( I doubt that all the original 22 parents agree with them).

"Dear Mr/Ms Li,

Thank you for your volunteer work at NWCS, as what many others did.

Yes, the administrative stuff prepare the pay checks for the teacher. Yes, they copy the materials, Yes, they prepare the contest and prepare trophies and certificates. Yes, they find a replacement when a teacher is ill. However, these are their jobs. These are their responsibilities. These are what they are paid for. They are not doing us a favor. They get the salary for it. No matter how well they have done their work, it is not an excuse for anyone among them not to follow the rule. The school can operate no matter which one leaves.

OK, I believe the vice-principal have answered many phone calls regarding the summer program. That is because she is vice-principal. That is because someone else didn't answer and let her answer. Anyway, she and the other admin members are in the school's payroll and receiving money for doing their jobs. If she has done much beyond the contract requirement, that is because she does so volunteerily and no one forced her to do it.

I don't know how you count the working hours. And, many parents (including you) did the volunteer work and their pay is $0 per hour, well below WA's minimum hourly wage. If she feels her salary is unfair, why didn't she leave? No one forced her to stay at NWCS!

Kennedy's words of blind trust have been criticized by many scholars and the other people, and his this sentence was part of the cause why the US got involved in the Vietnam war. We parents have the responsibility to supervise the school oeration and Kennedy's words cannot be used to let us give up this responsibility. If we parents and society as a whole do not ask what NWCS can do for the students but just ask what we can do for NWCS, then, why we should do for the school? Why the school should exist? Am I the school's slave?

From L Chen"

"I’m not anonymous, I usually even have my whole signature in my email. Here I also add my phone numbers.

I didn’t write the email you referred, but I agree some of points there.

1. We hired the administrative staffs to do the job. If they work to our satisfactory level, we thank them. However, they are NOT do a favor to the school. I believe it’s quite obvious.
2. People are selfish by nature. We parents need to have a mechanism to supervise and monitor the administrative staffs to make sure they do the jobs and spend the money we paid on the education of our children - I believe this is what many parents are looking for.

What do you think of these two points?

And again, welcome everyone to the forum to discuss further: http://nwcsparents.8.forumer.com/index.php

Charles Ma"

“It is sad to see that some of the parents including some board members forget the priority from time to time.

Personally I see it might be a victory to Simon's ego but certainly a loss to NWCS. The fact that Zhou Lin is forced to offer apology again, regardless it is justified or not, proves that the current administration is ready to close their chapter.

As a parent, I am sincerely grateful that the current administration resists all the pressure/interference and keeps the whole school running till the last day of the school year. That is a big favor to all of us.

A worried parent,
Shen Jun
”

Jerome's Letter

Jerome Jin has made some great sugestions regarding the June 9 hearing. Please share with us if your have any commends and suggestions too.

"Dear Board and PTA,

Thank you, first of all, for giving us parents an opportunity to have some inputs regarding the hiring of next term principal at NWCS. It is a good idea to solicit comments by conducting a survey after the public hearing. In order to make its results fair, truthful and reliable, I suggest that the following two check-and-balance measures be taken to avoid potential irregularities.

1) All survey forms must be numbered numerically, which will track the total number of forms handed out and more importantly allow each participant to check, later on if necessary, whether his/her form is in the pool for reference.

2) The survey forms should NOT given out freely as to ensure one parent one vote. Due to the time constraint, I suggest that the forms be distributed through students in the class. In this way, each family will more likely have just one vote/voice (except for those families with more than one child attending the school, if done correctly, even this can also be avoided). Therefore, the results are less likely to be biased in favor of or against any particular candidate.

Keep up the good and hard work and thanks for considering my suggestion!

Jerome Jin
Concerned Parent of NWCS Student"

董事会的通知

西北中文学校全体会员:
在西北中文学校二十二位会员家长的请求下, 西北中文学校董事会决定根据校规第十款第二条的规定召开全体会员特别大会。会议主要议题是对校长候选人进行公开听证。欢迎符合本校校规规定的会员家长及教师们踊跃参加这次会议。
会议将由校董事会和家长会联合主持。每位校长候选人将在会上就其教学管理理念与经验等发表演说，各位候选人还可就当选后如何针对本校实际情况进行改进的实施解决方案与措施等发表自己的意见和纲领。会议将安排专门的提问时间，供与会人员与候选人探讨共同关心的问题。所有与会人员将于会后填写一份调查表，对每个候选人进行评估。评估结果将向全体会员公布并提交董事会作为选拔新校长的参考。
校董事会和家长会鼓励所有会员家长及教师积极参加本次会议并发表意见。
董事会将在会前向与会成员提供候选人履历简介
。
时间：6/9/2007 星期六，上午11点至下午1点
地点：Lake Washington Technical College (Kirkland campus) 咖啡厅
主持人：孙本经（董事会副主席），胡晓君（家长会主席）
议程：
1. 候选人演讲，限每人5分钟（按候选人姓氏拼音为序）。
2. 提问（所有演讲结束之后）。
为了让更多会员有机会提问并让所有候选人有同等机会回答提问，特作以下规定：
a. 提问会员须按排队顺序进行提问，提问前须自报姓名及孩子班级。
b. 每人每次只可以提一个问题，如还有其它问题，则需重新排队。
c. 对同一候选人的连续提问不得超过3个（包括所有提问人）。
d. 提问时间以1分钟为限，回答时间以2分钟为限。
3. 与会人员填写评估表，然后交由调查人员对评估结果进行统计。
To all Northwest Chinese School (NWCS) members,
With the suggestion from 22 NWCS member parents, the NWCS board has decided to hold a “Special General Membership Meeting” as defined in the NWCS by-law at http://www.nwchinese.org/organization/bylaws.htm, article X, section 2. The purpose of this meeting is to hold an open hearing for all NWCS principal candidates. All valid NWCS member parents and teachers as defined in the NWCS by-law are welcome to attend this meeting.
The NWCS board and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) will jointly host this meeting. During the open hearing, all principal candidates will present their experiences, ideas, agendas, and solutions related to NWCS, as well as possible changes they would like to make if they get the job. There will be a question and answer (Q&A) session following the presentations. After all the hearings, a survey will be conducted among all the attendees. The survey results will be
published and provided to board directors as one resource to help their decision on appointing the new principal.
The NWCS board and PTA strongly encourage all NWCS parents and teachers to attend this meeting and provide your opinion.
The following is the meeting logistics.
Time: 6/9/2007, Saturday, 11:00am to 1:00pm
Place: Lake Washington Technical College (Kirkland campus) cafeteria
Hosts: Mr. Benjing Sun (VP of the Board) and Ms. June Hu (PTA chair) Agenda: 1. Candidate presentation: Every candidate will have 5 minutes to do the presentation. The order of presentation is determined by the alphabetic order of candidate last names.
2. Q & A: After all the presentations, a Q & A session starts. To allow more members to ask question and give every candidate an equal chance to answer questions, below is the format of Q & A session.
a. Each member who has any question will wait in a FCFS queue for his/her turn. Before asking a question, the member should report his/her own name and the NWCS class # of his/her child.
b. Each member can ask only one question each time. Then he/she must go back to the end of line for the next opportunity.
c. A maximum of 3 questions can asked to the same candidate consecutively.
d. Each question time is limited to 1 minute and the answering time is limited to 2 minutes.
3. Attending members fill up the survey form and turn it into a group of PTA volunteers who will count the results. The board will distribute the bios for the candidates before the meeting.
西北中文学校校长候选人家长评估表NWCS principal candidate evaluation form 候选人姓名 总体印象 Overall impression motivation & passion
教学及管理经验Educational & management experience
发展远景Vision for NWCS
实施计划Development plan on improving quality of education
职业道德和价值观Ethic and Morality
其他意见Additional comments
 Please evaluate each area for each candidate with the following score: 1 - not satisfied, 2 - somewhat concerned, 3 - fine, 4 - satisfied, 5 - excellent, blank – no opinion.
 This survey result will serve as a reference resource in decision making on principal appointment. It will not replace the principal appointment process as defined in NWCS by-law.
 The survey is anonymous. Its result will be published to all NWCS members.

周琳的道歉

这是周琳为5月7日发的email的道歉信。
To All Members of NWCS:


On May 7th at 8:43 PM, I sent out an e-mail titled: "Note to the NWCS parents: please take a look at those emails." to all the parents of Northwest Chinese School. The email that I forwarded includes an e-mail trail of messages exchanged between members of the NWCS Board as well as some of the parents. Specifically, at the request of some of the parents, I forwarded the emails to all the parents the e-mail containing comment made by Mr. Simon Zhang, a director of the board of NWCS. The truth is that under stress I have unintentionally merged selective messages from two email trains, and did not include Mr. Zhang’s follow-up apologies. I am sorry that I did not forward the original complete messages to give all parents the full context includes Mr. Zhang’s comment. By this letter I extend my formal apology to Mr. Simon Zhang and all parents of NWCS whom I may have unintentionally mislead.



Lin Zhou

Principal

Northwest Chinese School

谢黎君的信

董事会对校长处理不力已经到了令家长恼怒的地步了。为什么？
李政董事和校长亲夫是多年至交。十几年前就是大学同学。他是在周林胡小君操纵下在不足一百人的家长选出来的。到董事会目的十分明确：为周琳做代理。
西蒙受周琳侮辱，一忍再忍长达四周之久。无人过问，利益小人李政，听周琳丈夫说周受到法律威胁，立即受命跳出来要劝西蒙辞职，好一副马前卒的嘴脸。通过李政，周琳对董事会的运作的细节了如指掌，破坏董事会保密制度。（见以下博客）
提请董事会注意：对李政懂事的一切言论动议，加以细心考察。尤其是对周琳的处理问题，校长的任命问题等。
提请李政：在董事会，希望你每说一句话要按一按自己的心口。做一个高尚的人，纯粹的人。一点儿不晚。
提请李政：孙本京董事坦荡照人，不愧一个好汉。把女儿的事情讲得明明白白。你应向本京董事学习，把与周琳丈夫的事，你如何被推荐参选的是向董事会讲清楚。
提请董事会注意：董事潘虹野已经是精神不正常了。上次老师董事会开会，有目共睹。她把董事会闹得很尴尬。使老师们人对董事会失去信心。对其应加以限制。有病应该离开董事会。
提请所有人注意：对潘虹野要宽容，是个好人，呕心沥血地奉献。但她的确有病。
提请所有人注意：读一读 http://nwcssaga.blogspot.com。有些过激，但瑕不掩玉。没有不在理的。听听家长们说什么，醒醒吧！
谢黎君

告各位看客书

本博主因公事出差，差我带为管理几天。
本人能力有限，如有不周的地方还望主人和看客们见谅。

Peter的信

Dear NWCS members,

I would like to let you know that we are still open for new resumes for our NWCS principal position. The deadline is 6:00PM, June 6, 2007. Please send your resume to board@nwchinese.org.

I am asking all of you who are interested in helping this community to step up and lend us your hands! Let’s work together to build this school as our best Chinese community in greater Seattle area.

Thanks

Peter

Electing the Principal of this school is critical

这位家长说得非常有道理， 我非常同意选校长是个非常严肃的事情。没有标准，没有尺度地走过场是对学校的不负责任。

“Electing the Principal of this school is critical because the person in this position will lead the School up to next level.Does this school have Mission Statement? Does principal candidates have their visions for the development and advancement of the School?I don't know this process of election, one of the most critical steps probably is the Open Hearing you guys have been mentioning dozens of times here. I bet BOD will outline the bullet points for candidates' speech or presentation. My understanding is that each candidate should provide and express her or his:
1. Vision to leading the School to the right direction;
2. Revise Mission Statement, if any, to accommodate School current status;
3. Financial Management Planning, including Pro Forma P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow - Source & Use Format (Not GAAP Format for Reporting)
4. Personnel Management, including positions arrangement and hiring/rehiring plans for ADMIN Staff, faculties
5. Educational goals in terms of students' learning achievement
6. Risk Management in terms of backup plan under certain possible and foreseeable urgent scenariosPrincipal is a paid position, candidates need to know election is a serious process for which they have to be prepared more than they might think before. ”

Alex' letter

“西北中文学校董事会：

敬请董事会解释，除编者按外，刘晓君的会议纪实那个条目与事实不符?

鉴于校长周琳有目共睹的所作所为，提请董事会将其开除，保留追究其法律责任的一切权力。

A)要求董事会：

1）中文学校最赖以集资的暑期班被周琳断送。调查并追究周琳过去两年对暑期班管理的失职；
对其行政处罚。
2）责承周琳和副校长对故意破坏教师和董事会坦诚对话向全体教师道歉。
3）责承周琳向全校解释为什么散布董事会要降低教师工资和解雇教师的谣言。
4）为保护学校的合法性，聘请专职人员，全面调查周琳在职两年内的所有分配细账。已备学校
受法律挑战。

B) 建议董事会：

- 周琳在职期间，积怨甚多。注意调整教职员工的心态。去伪存真。剔除感情因素。只重事实。
- 周琳在职期间，结党营私，招降纳叛。注意会有一批人随周琳而辞职。董事会要准配提拔新
人。
- 董事会应加强自身的团结。对相互攻击的行为应予追究。

谨此
Alex ”

Congratulations to NWCS telented kids

这是学校发来的信，你们大家可呢给已经都看到了。因为这些孩子咱们这个学校在整个华盛顿州都非常有名气了，为了这些孩子我们也要让学校好好发展下去，你们说是不是？

其实这个blog不是为了谁，而是为了家长们有个说话的地方。匿名也没有什么不好，大家毕竟都是低头不见抬头见，有些话说重了以后还怎么见面？如果你觉得匿名更能让你敞开心扉，go a head! 不过攻击性的语言最好不要说，因为那样也解决不了问题，只会让别人难堪。



Dear parents,

Greetings from NWCS!

· Congratulations to NWCS Math Teams
The full result from last Saturday (5/19)'s 2007 Washington State 4th to 6th grade MathIsCool Master competition:

4th grade:
Team 1st place (team members: Caleb Ji, Robert Zhang, Brandon Wang, Kevin Yang)

Individual awards:
Kevin Yang: 1st place
Brandon Wang: 6th place

5th grade:
Team 5th place (Team members: Allen Jiang, Evan Wang, Michelle Na, Qiaoman Chen). They tied with the 4th place for the total score.

Iindividual awards:
Kevin Liu: 2nd place (Stevenson)
Evan Wang: 8th place
Allen Jiang: 12th place

6th grade:
Team 4th place (team member Dandi Meng, Derek Yee, Jennifer Cheng, and Kevin Ma)

Individual awards,
Albert Chu: 1st place (Odle)
Emily Zhang: 5th place (Odle)
Dandi Meng: 6th place
Derek Yee: 7th place
Jennifer Cheng 8th place

Congratulations for all NWCS students who participated!

· Passport/Visa is ready to pick up
For majority of participants (except for two families/7 applicants) who used PTA organized group visa service, your passport/visa is ready to pick up. Ms June Hu, the PTA chair will distribute them in the same area when you turned in your application(s) this coming Saturday (6/2), from 9 - 10 am. Please bring the receipt (or your driver's license if you happen to lose/misplace the receipt) when picking up your passport/visa. Make sure to contact Ms Hu via email: jhurenton@hotmail.com or call: 206-802-4889 if you can't pick up at the above scheduled time to make special arrangement.

做些实实在在的事情，别玩花架子

Per parent's request:

I would like say something to the people in the board,why we need pay the high salary to Principal, why we can't do like other Chinese in North American, everybody in the school is volunteer, and use tuition fee for our kids, or low the tuition fee more affordable for our society, I know some family have more kids they can't afford all the kids go to school, that shame of our society! I believe everybody in this school have ability teach their kids Chinese at home, so why we sent kids to this school? Because we believe this way our kids can learn better, we should stop this kind of issue , put more attention to our kid's learning issue.做些实实在在的事情，别玩花架子

So you had enough NWCS news

So surprised by such a larger number of people reading the blog. Just installed visitor count at 10:00 PM, in just one hour, the blog web site already got 150 hits. It clearly shows that everyone cares about our school and eager to know the result of yesterday's teacher's board meeting. of cause, Kudos to some of the posting below.

So, thanks to everyone who sacrificed their time and make tremendous contribution to the site. Like everyone else, We really enjoy reading those article.


Friday is approaching and with such great weather, We like to clip some of good articles and continue entertainning the idea of improving our NWCS.

This sure needs to be on top of the board:
观星期六会议众生有感:
心在牌局兴正酣
突闻众人吵翻天
顺眼看去下一跳
啊!六方会谈起硝烟
志华入Board成议题
选举程序又重提
By-Law变成挡箭牌
你说我辩都有理

智东叹气又摇头
今非昔比几多愁
庆幸跳出是非窝
及早退休无所求

本京出口似经典
实际作到有点难
听说女儿已搞定
理事宝座想当然

虹野说话象土蕃
陈明欲说又无言
老公赋闲不得闲
老婆无权胜有权

周琳未改周琳象
欺诈狡辩多一样
先说保密再摊牌
先封你口再发难

晓君今天有点恼
想必昨夜没睡好
都是捣蛋的L Chen
是男是女摸不着

半路杀出陈文英
惊煞众人闹不清
借问此君哪路神
是斩是拜您说清

乱军突显王南希
舌战群儒无所惜
不让须眉一豪杰
独胆孤军扶正义

Peter静观留心计
老子出山已在际
斗天斗地我不怕
再擒妖人复社稷

冷观众生图热闹
学校乱世几时了
扰我牌局不胜烦
要是睹钱还得了

Another post:
So funny. I am struggling to vote you or L.Chen as the brilliantest in NWCS. We will be sorry if Zhou Lin is fired today. Let her keeps us entertained. At least we should give her a kudo just for that.

Top 10 list why I am afraid of firing Zhou Lin
#10: No one can manage our financial statement without Board’s and PTA’s supervising
#9: Lake Washington Technical College will increase our rent rate so we will end up paying more.
#8: Summer program will be suffered and we can not recruit qualified site managers.
#7: We will pay even more to a new Principal since we all know Seattle is short of qualified principal.#6: We do not have the representative at Governor’s dinner party
#5: 22 parents so call PTA representatives will start fighting amount themselves.
#4. People like Mr. Wo won't talk funny anymore.
#3: No one wishes us with "妈妈更年轻，爸爸多发财" at Chinese New Year.
#2. L Chen will not give people free lectures about Law.
#1: I no longer can attend important school meeting at local Chinese restaurant.

How about this opening statement:
会前有两位家长欲意旁听会议，有些教师有争议。该两位家长坦然离去。但，校长带着副校长未被邀请而到会，引起激烈争议。5名董事会成员劝校长们离开，校长开始拒绝，后迫于压力，答应讨论到关于对校长的意见的时候离开。然而两校长背信弃义始终未离会场。编者按：教师不止一次要求只是教师和董事会的交流。由于校长们在场，所以会议一开始就阴云密布。值得指出，两位校长不仅是不请而来，而且是有备而来。且始终赖着不走。两位婆婆后排座，众小媳妇闭口舌。我乃小媳妇之一也。

This post provide another side of persperctive:
All we need for a principal is someone that loves the job and has a spirit to volunteer. From what I heard/read, Zhou does not have either. I am not here to say that she's morally incapable. Everyone has to make a living but NWCS is not a place to make a living. To be honest, all conflicts boil down to money and power - money first and then power.

L Chen, our legal consultant, provide some glimpse on the legal side opinion:
联邦法律严厉惩处在非营利机构多捞好处的人。在这方面的罪名有三种：Private Inurement，Private Benefit，和Excess Benefit。而当事人则有一个专门的名词，叫做“Disqualified Persons”(DQs)。
民主是什么？民主是一种生活方式，就是说，是一种活法。我们这些从东方来的，身上都多少有点东方专制主义的基因，所以都有个学习适应的过程
孟德斯鸠说：“有权力的人们使用权力一直到遇有界限的地方才休止。”校长不受董事会监督，就可能滥用职权。同样，董事会不受家长监督，也一样可能滥用职权。而让家长能有监督学校的可能性，就必须使得家长老师之间能自由交换信息，包括小道消息。我发现，怎么小道消息往往比那些官样消息更可信呢？是董事会在领导学校，但是要知道还有全体家长在领导董事会。

Closing this clip series with this one:
Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off." (Colin Powell ). A school with no clear financial record is the ultimate way to fail all of us. Choose the right battle to fight. This IS THE BATTLE TO FIGHT.

Again: Thanks for all the posts. This Blog is yours. We welcome everyone's contributions.
if you like to post your own article rather than just comment, please drop an email at dwnwseattle@gmail.com or just put it on the comment line and mention it to me.

For all concerned parents, we own ourself a question: what is next step we can do for this school ?

教师董事会会议纪实

Per request from concerned PTA member:

西北中文教师董事会会议纪实五月二十九晚七时至九时半 于 华盛顿湖技校

1 序曲会前有两位家长欲意旁听会议，有些教师有争议。该两位家长坦然离去。但，校长带着副校长未被邀请而到会，引起激烈争议。5名董事会成员劝校长们离开，校长开始拒绝，后迫于压力，答应讨论到关于对校长的意见的时候离开。然而两校长背信弃义始终未离会场。

编者按：教师不止一次要求只是教师和董事会的交流。由于校长们在场，所以会议一开始就阴云密布。值得指出，两位校长不仅是不请而来，而且是有备而来。且始终赖着不走。

两位婆婆后排座，众小媳妇闭口舌。我乃小媳妇之一也。
2 教师工资奖金校长公然造谣："董事会要学校的详细工资支出是要降低教师工资，还可能解雇教师。"

一理事忍无可忍激动地站起来澄清事实："周校长，你刚刚说的不符合事实。理事会作了长达两个月大量细致的研究。认为西北中文校长和教师的收入极其不成比例，数倍之差（手势）。理事会花了大量的心血更改工资制度目的正是想把教师工资提高，校长工资降低。三座在此地的台湾学校校长都是义工。东部，加州，德州，大部分中文学校，或董事义工兼职校长，或校长的薪水是西北中文校长工资的零头。周林校长刚才说的不正确 "

编者按：我们的校长已经不是什么能力的问题了。造谣惑众是道德品
质的问题！
小插曲：前任理事张严是董事会工资调查的主持人，被校长用"夫人外交"逼迫辞职了。

3 学校亏损与盈利不请自到的西北中文的簿记员提问：花了一万五千美金的审计结论是什么？董事会财政官答曰：A） 指出了学校的雇佣结构的大漏洞 - - - 雇员与合同工 B） 指出学校赖以生存的校舍是在月租 - - - 校舍极其不稳定C） 指出学校的存款应在多个银行分布 - - - 保护学校财产三五位教师对学校的财务提出了问题，董事会财政官做了详细的回答。编者按：董事会财政管可敬可佩。在压力下，始终保持高度的修养和专业的风范。赢得一致好评。

4 董事会的团结
两位校长赖着不走是董事会内部不团结的表现之一。之二，一董事会成员当面质问董事会财政官。（质问：明知答案，意在影响听众思想之目而发出疑问。录自 《新华字典》）。大家都认
为该董事应该受董事会教育，应以团结为重。

编者按：该董事近来情绪不稳定，有些病态，请大家多多原谅。也望该董事已大局为重，建议你报病休养一段时间。等心理正常后再行始董事职责。

5 暑期班数位教师对校长去年管理暑期班提出强烈批评。

A） 开办之前，分部经理根据以往经验向校长提出该分部将会亏损。开办后再次提出亏损警告。校长的回答是："亏损也的办，中文学校有的是钱！"该分部整反个夏天亏的是一塌糊涂。校长因为该分部，两千块美金饱入自囊。为什么？西北中文和校长的合同不论盈亏，只要开一个分部，校长就有多出两千美金的收入。编者按：令人发指！

B） 校长五月七号晚向全校发的邮件请董事会追究校长的责任。为何到今天尚未作出任何解释？

C） 夏天开学的第一个星期，是最需要校长的时候，校长选在该星期度假。数个课程没有教师。整个夏天，校长到各分部的时间屈指可数。抱怨者说，"她一次是带着父母来游了一圈；另一次是来看看，顺便吃了一个包子" （众人笑）

D） 今年暑期班还办不办了？ 前任两校长时期，暑期班是西北中文赖以集资的重点。到今天，零七年的暑期班的存在都十分危险了。教师们很困惑。编者按：校长看到大事不好，在一周前告诉董事会不管暑期班了。鉴于校长把暑期班破坏到如此程度，建议董事会追究校长行政责任。大略如此，其实过之。本人只是略记一二。有出入者请原谅。尽量提事不提名。另，希望大家也来弥补本人忘却的地方。畅所欲言。婆婆们去睡觉了。

Who should be fired?

For the most of time this month, I have been asking myself, who should be fired? Is that Simon who speaks out with XXXX word or Zhou Lin who obviously manipulated mail thread, has acknowledged that she post it with school DL system, expose school financial question, and even worse, we still do not know if she hand over the financial statement as board mandated May 25 deadline.


Should Simon sue Zhou Lin for her email manipulation and defaming Simon? It is Simon and Zhou Lin's personnel matter. It is no one's business even Board and PTA. I would sue her if I were Simon just to get justice. Is this going to make NWCS look bad? Of cause it will. And it is exactly the reason Zhou Lin should be disciplined.


But the sad fact is that Board does not act fast enough to do the damage control including discipline Zhou Lin and terminate her contract immediately. The delay of such action causes more damage to NWCS reputation.


Should Simon be fired because he is suing school principal? Rumor mill is that Board is asking Simon involuntary resigning from Board. Do you think we have not yet enough joke? This will create even bigger joke for our NWCS beyond Northwest. Hope that will match "FBI will monitor email and arrest you for sending email anonymously" joke. Based on my so so IQ, I do not believe our board will do such uncivilized decision and make our school even bad. Or the person who started the rumor has worse logic than you know who.

Like Letterman's show, here is my top 1o reasons why I am afraid of firing Zhou Lin.

Disclaimer:
These are no facts except entertainment because I am also afraid of being sued.


#10: No one can manage our financial statement without Board’s and PTA’s supervising

#9: Lake Washington Technical College will increase our rent rate so we will end up paying more.

#8: Summer program will be suffered and we can not recruit qualified site managers.

#7: We will pay even more to a new Principal since we all know Seattle is short of qualified principal.

#6: We do not have the representative at Governor’s dinner party

#5: 22 parents so call PTA representatives will start fighting amount themselves.

#4. People like Mr. Wo won't talk funny anymore.

#3: No one wishes us with "妈妈更年轻，爸爸多发财" at Chinese New Year.

#2. L Chen will not give people free lectures about Law.

#1: I no longer can attend important school meeting at local Chinese restaurant.

L Chen's public letter to NWCS

致中文学校的一封信
说明：我有一百几十个email地址。但YAHOO限制发送地址的数目，所以必须分两次发出。全部email地址见最后。如果您愿意，请您转发给其他老师家长或者放入NWCS blog。谢谢。
中文学校这三四个月发生的事情已经越来越清楚了。感谢各位的发言尤其是Wang Qi先生的来信(我相信此信，合逻辑嘛)，使得此事的来龙去脉已为许多家长老师所知悉。本着对社区的责任以及对孩子中文教育的关心，我想再多说一次，澄清几个问题，因为此事对于我们都是一个很好的教育。如果您不愿意听，直接删掉或者BLOCK了就行。假如我一下子收到很多信而没时间全部回复，也请您原谅。如果有不正确的地方，敬请各位指出。
我想说三个方面的问题：一，关于诽谤罪和言论自由。二，关于非营利组织的法律法规。三，关于西北中文学校的游戏规则。
一， 诽谤、辱骂、匿名与言论自由
美国宪法作为世界第一部成文宪法，通过第一修正案明确保护人民的言论自由。我这儿用的“人民”而不是“公民”，因为非公民也享有同样的保护，这些人所共知。
诽谤，英文叫defamation，分成两种。一种是slander，即口头诽谤，另一种是libel，即书面诽谤。打官司的主要是后者。诽谤罪的法律标准到六十年代因为《纽约时报》对Sullivan案件的判决发生了巨大的变化。从那以后，美国最高法院陆续制定了区分公众人物和非公众人物的界限，其判决标准也是不同的。公众人物分“无限公众人物”(如，Bush、bin Laden)和“有限公众人物”。后者是指一个范围内自愿参与公众事务并且有些影响的人物。比如在关于中文学校的问题上，董事会成员是公众人物，前董事会的也是，校长副校长是，PTA主席是，连Jay Na都是(他自愿去开会并通过投票施加了影响嘛 ─ 免费为他炒作了)。反过来，假如一个老师教书很有名，但是没有参与到这个事情里来，他就不是此事的公众人物。
在美国什么样的言论构成了对这些“有限公众人物”的诽谤罪呢？诽谤的言论必须满足下面所有的条件：
 该言论必须是陈述(statement)而不是看法(opinion)。比如，说“张三打死人了”是陈述，而“李四是泼妇”则是看法。因为张三是否打人了可以予以查证，而李四是否泼妇则无法查证是否属实，即使她参加过泼水节也无法证明是否泼妇。
 该陈述被证明为不符合事实。
 该言论的受众至少包括第三者(仅仅给原告的不算)。
 该言论损害了原告的名誉。
 原告须证明被告是故意地恶意诽谤(Actual Malice)并为法庭认可。
由此看来，即使发现与事实不符，但只要他无法证明对方是成心的、恶意的，诽谤罪也不成立。所以，只要本着自己的良心说话，即使没有控制好情绪，也不存在什么诽谤的可能。让所有的人自由发表意见而心中没有恐惧，正是宪法第一修正案的动机。中文学校那几个人动辄以诽谤罪来吓唬大家，其实只是个笑料而已，还希望那几个人以后多发一些这样的信，也好为大家的生活多增加欢笑。
也许你会问，辱骂算不算罪？比如用Bitch, Asshole这样的词骂人？辱骂叫Profanity，它更多是一种道德范畴而不是法律范畴，作为一种情绪发泄，它也受宪法第一修正案的保护。但是，在下列几种情况下辱骂不受保护：
 辱骂的词是Fighting Words，通俗地说，就是因为这样的词导致当场打架等等不和平的事情发生。
 真正的威胁，比如，“你不给我钱我晚上去打死你。”
此外，公共媒体、在公立学校内的学生、军队、以及Telemarketing行业的辱骂也不受第一修正案的保护。
至于匿名是人民合法享有的权利因而受宪法保护的事，我已经说过了。法律设置了重重的障碍来禁止相关公司(如ISP)揭示出匿名者。简直可以这么说：除非能被定罪，否则是难以揭示其身份的。法律这样规定是因为要保护弱势者的言论自由权而使其免于打击报复。
二， 非营利组织的法律规定
William Aramony 在United Way of America (UWA) 任首席执行官达22年之久，但是却于1992年被开除、起诉并被判处7年徒刑。替代此人并重整UWA的就是当今的劳工部长赵小兰。UWA是个501(c)(3)的非营利组织，和西北中文学校完全相同。那人为何被起诉判刑？就是做假、拿UWA的公款为己谋利。此事，在美国待久的恐怕还记得。赵小兰马上重整UWA的财务制度，增加监督和透明性，才使得人们逐渐恢复了对United Way的信心。
中文学校是谁的？中文学校是慈善机构，它可以说是家长的，但是更多是社会的。为什么？因为非营利机构没有赋税，于是免费使用了其他纳税人所支撑的社会资源。也正因为如此，任何人(注意，是任何人，没有任何限制)都可以对非营利机构进行监督。比如，按照联邦法规规定，任何人都可以来索取报税的990表。假如一个陌生人来到中文学校对周琳说：“我要一份学校最近三年的990税表。”周琳必须马上给，顶多收一点复印费用。假如拖延不给，推延一天多罚20美元，直到一万美元为止。而且交罚金的还不是中文学校，而是当事人自己。非营利机构财务的核心是透明，向全社会开放并由全社会监督。许多组织把他们的990表和财务状况在网上公布。所以，即使中文学校的财务没有违法的地方，校长不交出详细的财经报告，既违反了学校的规则也违反了联邦的法规。
联邦法律严厉惩处在非营利机构多捞好处的人。在这方面的罪名有三种：Private Inurement，Private Benefit，和Excess Benefit。而当事人则有一个专门的名词，叫做“Disqualified Persons”(DQs)。Private Inurement是指这些组织内的DQs把组织的财产或资源转移到自己手中。这大概相当于我们说的贪污。Private Benefit是指DQs为自己、家人或者亲朋好友谋取不公正的利益。比如，雇用自己亲属的公司而价格偏高，等等。这大概是相当于中文的谋不当私利。Private Inurement是Private Benefit的一种。在此，我引用一家法律事务所的一段话：
A salary might be "incidental" to the purpose and incidental in comparison to expenditures on the overall program and still be excessive as to an individual, thus possibly violating the private inurement prohibition. For example, an organizer of a nonprofit school can properly be employed by that school as a teacher, and the organizer's compensation might be small (incidental) compared to the overall expenditures on the nonprofit educational activity of the school, but the salary might be 4 or 5 times that paid any other teacher at the school although credentials, experience and teaching duties were generally similar. The salary, if deemed excessive, would be a form of prohibited inurement.
第三种叫Excess Benefit，是指在里面的人员尤其是和决策层有关的人员，其得益大于其为该机构做出的贡献。I.R.C. Code Sec. 4958详细规定了对501(c)(3)和501(c)(4)里面DQs的惩罚。假如一个人应该拿$10000却拿了$20000，那么，不仅征收其多拿的25%的惩罚税，即$2500，并且必须把多拿的$10000加利息退还。如果到时没有退还，则加收200%的惩罚税，即$20000。在501(c)(3)和501(c)(4)里面，凡是不合理的薪水都可能犯这一罪状。什么是合理？其它类似机构对同样的位置付多少薪水，正是判断该DQs的薪水是否合理的标准之一。不仅如此，该条款还要直接追究批准者的责任并罚款10%，即$1000。所以，如果校长的薪水不合理，即使是董事会批准的也不行，因为董事会也不能损害全社会的利益。注意，现在的董事会成员们，你们如果续签校长的合同，尤其是在已经知道其他学校的薪水情况以后(见Qi Wang和Wo先生的Email)，你们就得承担自己的法律责任，你们的责任保险恐怕也保护不了你们。我这儿可绝对不是吓唬谁威胁谁，不信，自己去网上查Internal Revenue Code: Sec. 4958，Taxes on excess benefit transactions。
非营利组织可以营利，但是所得利润必须全部用于该组织制定的社会福利目标上。所谓的“提成”，英文叫 Revenue Sharing，更是Private Benefit最明显的迹象。正因为如此，990报税表的V-A部分要求列出机构里面所有有影响的人物在该机构内的收入，这当然包括董事(虽然未拿钱)，校长和副校长，会计，以及所有的“关键员工”(指所有其他有影响力的人)，有学校990表的可以发过来大家看看。
以前，对于非营利组织的财务问题，政府往往直接取消该组织的非营利地位。自九十年代以来，政府开始集中打击里面的DQs，也就是说，集中惩罚里面的烂苹果而不是一整棵树，William Aramony的七年徒刑就是铁证。我不忍心看见中文学校的任何人步William Aramony的后尘，所以我在此提醒大家。
三， 西北中文学校的游戏规则
人类从野蛮走向文明，最根本的一步是脱离丛林法则，有了一个相对公平的游戏规则。在中文学校，游戏规则就是她的by-law。在申请成为非营利机构的时候，by-law已在联邦政府备案。
基于校长是有薪水的职位，对于校长的监督，尤其是对于财务的监督，是董事会最重要的职责。校长受董事会监督，而董事会受家长监督，整个学校受社会监督，这样一环扣一环。在校长犯错不再适任的时候，董事会可以以3/4的多数将其免职。在某董事不合格时，董事会的3/4或者家长大会的2/3可以弹劾他。
最近，接连许多董事辞职，严重损害了董事会的合法性(Legitimacy)。最近进去的这几位，到底是谁替补的谁？哪三位明年到期？哪三位后年到期？哪三位大后年到期？你们恐怕连想都没想过，真是一笔糊涂帐！补选之前，里面仅仅剩下5名董事会，这还包括了最近进去的两位。我对于这两位没有任何个人成见，或许他们二位都是非常好的人。但是，我质疑其合法性。这不仅仅是因为参加家长大会的不足半数，以往也曾有家长大会不足半数的情况，但是这次明显不同的地方，在于这次选举有明显幕后操纵的迹象，因而既缺少程序正义也缺少实质正义。这点从有的家长的信里面就明显感觉出来了，就是对于董事会整体上不信任，有的甚至没有撇清和校长的关系！
现在的董事会面临着合法性危机！By-law设计让董事会自己选举替补董事成员，是有假设的，就是假设很少有董事辞职。但是这次完全不同。设想9人的董事会里面有8人辞职，根据现在的规定，由剩下的那一位董事“选举”其他8位董事。这样，这个董事会不就成了他一个人的了吗？所以，在过多董事辞职的情况下召开特别家长大会，才是符合法理的，也是完全必要的。只有这样新选出的董事会，才能总体上获得家长的信任。
在董事会自己合法性不足的情况下，聘请的校长也会合法性不足。如果你们匆忙聘请校长，会对学校造成更大的伤害。比较理想的办法是先任命一位无薪临时校长，清查帐目，尽早重新公平公开地提名选举董事会，再由新董事会正式招聘校长。我想家长们应该严肃考虑搜集15位家长的签名而要求召开全体家长大会，并重新选举董事会全体成员的时候了。
PTA是老师家长的联谊组织，其参加是自愿的。自愿参加这一点，就决定了PTA不是第二权力系统。PTA主席参加董事会会议，仅仅是起到把家长的意见反映到董事会的作用，这是一个传信员的角色。假如PTA变成校长威胁董事会的工具，那可真是荒唐透顶了。所谓的“PTA有权开家长会以弹劾董事”和“PTA主席决定召开家长大会”这样的说法，都违反了学校的by-law。只要有半数董事要求，或者15位家长要求，都必须召开家长大会，因而可能以2/3弹劾任何董事。PTA开会弹劾，是指其中有15位以上家长的要求，是家长的要求，和PTA组织无关。PTA作为组织没有权力召开家长大会，更不用说PTA主席了。甚至可以这么说，假如若干家长自行成立一个和PTA差
不多的组织叫PTB，那么，PTB就有和PTA同样的权利。PTB主席也可以参加董事会会议(任何家长都可以，可旁听无决策权)。之所以在by-law里面专门提及PTA主席参加董事会会议而没有提及PTB，完全是因为要求学校内部至少应该有一个这类组织的缘故。
民主是什么？民主是一种生活方式，就是说，是一种活法。我们这些从东方来的，身上都多少有点东方专制主义的基因，所以都有个学习适应的过程。比如这两天，董事会黄主席曾在一封email里说：你们请不要在这儿发email，给董事会写信就行了(大意)。他应该是好意，但我仍不禁问自己：是言论自由和舆论监督珍贵，还是“上访办”珍贵？你们当董事的，学着在大家的言论监督中工作吧。我甚至想，应该设置一个专门的永久的讨论区，让老师家长在上面实名或匿名发表意见，由董事会和校长答复。孟德斯鸠说：“有权力的人们使用权力一直到遇有界限的地方才休止。”校长不受董事会监督，就可能滥用职权。同样，董事会不受家长监督，也一样可能滥用职权。而让家长能有监督学校的可能性，就必须使得家长老师之间能自由交换信息，包括小道消息。我发现，怎么小道消息往往比那些官样消息更可信呢？是董事会在领导学校，但是要知道还有全体家长在领导董事会。
我们离开家人、离开自己的母文化而来到这块土地上，图个什么？还不是为了这儿相对公平清廉的社会和健全的法治？一个地方的不公平就是对所有人的不公平。今天你有说话的机会却不说话，明天你就会连这个机会都没有了。就象癌症一般是从一个细胞开始一样，社会不公也是从一个小地方开始。应该象爱护眼睛一样爱护自己的自由权、象珍惜生命一样珍惜这个法治的环境。
最后，我引用校长她自己在今年4月Newsletter上的一段话作为结束：
“„„西北中文是一所非营利性质的学校。这是一种公开的面向社会各界的组织。学校自建立之日起就不是属于某个人的财产，将来也不会是。„„没有公平和均衡的民主意识，学校必然向单方面倾斜，丧失团结的力量；没有开放的言路和透明的体制，任何团体或组织都会产生一言堂，变成少数人牟利的工具。„„”