We have amassed a team with the pedagogical expertise, administrative proficiency, and local knowledge necessary to accomplish our ambitious goals. Our team already includes 1. Paula Silbey (pictured right), an experienced educator and administrator to serve as the principal/ head master, 2. local parents and business owners who are committed to building a high-quality school in the area and have volunteered to oversee construction, 3. a Montessori school founder and educator who will co-develop the curriculum and supervise Thai governmental procedures, 4. social workers with the refugee community, and 5. the project coordinators with the Burmese Refugee Project (a public health professor at Columbia University and a political science professor at the City University of New York). While we are of Shan, Thai, English, American, Chinese, and mixed descent, we are all committed to seeing an academically rigorous and diverse school serve Shan refugee children in Maehongson province.

We have also secured volunteer teachers with Master’s degrees in Education from Columbia University Teacher’s College for the first year, and we anticipate that we will able to recruit volunteer teachers until the school tuition payments can cover teacher salaries. Further, the Montessori school in Chiang Mai and the Khom Loy Development Foundation in Chiang Rai have both agreed to provide intensive Montessori training to Banyan School teachers, for free. (The Khom Loy Development Foundation usually charges 40,000 baht, or $1,200 US, per term for teacher training.)

We seek 6.3 million Thai baht (approximately $226,000 US) in grants. This will allow us to complete the complex licensure process for Thai governmental accreditation, construct the school, and open by May 2012. It will also fund the first year of schooling. These start-up funds will, in turn, go a very long way and render the Banyan School financially sustainable in perpetuity. Unlike other non-profit schools or most non-governmental organizations, we do not plan to seek donations or grants in order to cover future operating expenses.

We have conducted meetings with prospective refugee and tuition-paying families, and we have completed assessments on both our funding streams and our expenditures. We can assure funders that our cost figures are realistic but frugal. (If you are interested in supporting this initiative, please contact us for more detailed information: Peter Muennig and Celina Su.)