Dear Students,
Hope your holidays were great. Unfortunately, they have now come to an end, and school must start anew. Just as the holidays have come to an end, so is the 2018-2019 CdE going to dissolve and a new one will be formed after the election of the new CdE Presidency. This report, which builds on our Semi-Annual report, is the final report of the 2018-2019 CdE (i.e. it does not repeat what has already been stated in the Semi-Annual report or in the October report).
Over the summer, the school was busy with construction works. Namely, as promised both in our new and original program, the upper football fields have been covered with artificial grass including shockpad from NamGrass (a subsidy of DomoSports). This was a cooperation between the administration, the parents and the CdE, thus serves as a testament to the European dream’s achievability. The CdE voted 26-0-0 to pay 10000€ as its share for the cost of this installation (about one-third of the costs). The type of NamGrass covering used (there is also a shockpad underneath) allows for multi-sports and does not require special football shoes.
As stated as an eventuality in our Semi-Annual report, the new, more comfortable chairs have since then arrived to the S123 Cafeteria sometime in June (in addition to the new tables).
We also installed 5 blue beanbags in the S123 Cafeteria in May.
The new artwork for the S123 Cafeteria is still in progress, the art classes headed by Ms. Sheppard are doing it. A mural of the solar system is planned to make the walls of the S123 Cafeteria come alive.
The new bio-cofffee has arrived to the S4567 Cafeteria in March, and so have the new (more) biodegradable paper cups in June. We are told by the Canteen and Cafeteria Committee that keychain-based payments will possibly be installed over the Summer or later in 2019-2020; this has its advantages and drawbacks. A keychain will be used to pay (which can be charged up by bancontact). There will be shorter ques/lines if this is implemented, however in that case cash will be abolished.
The renovations of the S4567 Cafeteria/Library/Etude were also a huge success. While we could not install the Nikrans LCD-300 Mobile Signal Booster due to the administration rejecting it (reason: fear of parents complaining due to antenna and radio waves), we managed to get around 30 more chairs, a billiard table in the S4567 Cafeteria and 2 sofas in the Library and 2 sofas in the Etude.
The new CdE Statute passed with a vote of 21-0-1 and so have all the reform documents (including the standarized CdE template). These are available through the CdE Transparency Project.
Below is a summary of the new CdE Statute and CdE reform document changes.
As for finances, we ended the year with 2574.48€ in the account of the APEEE and 0€ in the CdE safe. As of the beginning of the year, we had 20485.36€, and now we have 2574.48€, which is a spending of 17910.88€. All accounting, including for cash money, is in the CdE Accounting document.
We sold in total around 1350 hoodies, indicating that this year’s design was very popular. We sold to students, both primary and secondary, to teachers, to parents and to the administration. We sold both online through our website and in-person, for cash and accepting bancontact. While we had some supply issues with the first delivery, almost everyone who paid online got their hoodies by the second delivery, and those who did not were refunded. In addition, we have now realized that tighter measures need to be taken when selling, as some hoodies cannot be accounted for in the CdE Accounting document. These issues will be corrected by next year’s CdE.
We managed to produce an educational video with one of the Science Festival participants (ESSS 2nd place winner 2018-2019) for future participants (to be shared between science teachers by Ms. Csonka and shown to participants). In addition, the Science Festival working group has worked on ways to increase participation. One of the ideas is already in place, which is a 3D printed cup campaign (designed by students). Another idea is to harmonize the Science Festivals accross the European Schools (for the ESSS) by the use of a guidelines document. The document has been drafted but it has not yet been sent to the inspector Mr. Wolf for possible official integration.
We launched a campaign to raise awareness of the European School system and of the CdE Transparency Project.
The CdE organized a Chess Tournament with the support of the APEEE and of the administration. It was a great success and there was lots of interest. The 50€ was donated to Rios de Encontro by the winner, Jan Thiel (then S6DEA).
The Graffiti Wall project has started (approved by the Regie Des Batiments and the administration), and it already has two graffitis on it. The first one is ours, and the second one is “Save the Planet” written with big letters and white paint on the wall. This looks to be a promising start.
We repainted and reorganized the CdE room. This includes a new working computer and printer. We also added a new green document disposal box next to the room.
The absences list (of the early morning periods) for the next day will be sent to secondary students every day at 15:00 as of 2019-2020 to their Office365 Outlook. This is the new system after the CdE worked out with the administration the temporary system of the Vie Scolaire being sent the absent teachers every day at 15:00 for 2018-2019 – this new system for 2019-2020 is easier both for students and for the administration. In addition, starting in 2019-2020, the absences list for the current day will be displayed on the TV screens around school.
The MyEEB1 application has been launched and has been a great success. It includes functions for taking notes, viewing schedule, viewing canteen and cafeteria information like menu, and tons more. It has now been downloaded more than 100 times according to Play Store (77 active installations currently). Future CdEs will extend the application, namely an integrated absences list is planned (for this, the administration’s cooperation is needed).
The CdE Radio Project launched and the first podcast is out. It was really fun and an informative session with Minorities Against the CdE, which we managed to upload to Spotify. More podcasts are expected to come!
While we do not have exact numbers, our communication and the awareness of the CdE has improved drastically. For example, our main communication platform, Instagram following went from around 400 in October 2018 to around 950 as of September 2019. This is thanks in part to our CdE Transparency Project (i.e. reports, meeting minutes, project progress, Q/As shared and made publicly available).
We also launched a campaign to raise awareness of the fact that for the S7s, past BAC exams are available through Office365 Sharepoint (and) through Marks Polakov’s BACMAN, which is an interface for the former.
Near the end of the 2018-2019 scholastic year, we ran an Alumni Survey with the APEEE of EEB1 and other APEEEs. This is a common project of the European Schools community in Brussels with all stakeholders involved, spearheaded by the APEEEs. EEB1 had by far the best response rate, with 99 graduates already having applied by 7/7/2019.
As our projects and campaigns grew, so did our Platon poster wall.
The Sports Tournament Organizers declined to sign the agreement to organize the Inter-School Sports Tournament due to a lack of time, thus this was not organized in 2018-2019. Both discos were a huge success for the S123 (November 23rd and May 17th), as always. The CdE also helped organize the May 10th Talent Show, for which we managed the online ticket sale system through BISSC (amounting to 4301€) and made a poster. The online ticket sale system also included a donation to You and Me (1€), they made 248€.
The Humanities Festival looks to be moving forward, but it remains to be seen whether it will be implemented in 2019-2020.
As stated in the Semi-Annual report, policy-wise we did not manage to change S4/S5 going out, Vert Chausseur exit ban, or going out before 4th period. We did manage to get explanations for them though. We also discussed making school start later, but this was said to be not possible logistically and otherwise (even though it was supported by the teachers, the APEEE and the administration). Similar was the full-time psychologist at EEB1, which was recognized to be important, but was rejected due to “budgetary priorities” by the OSG’s representatives.
We had more success with the S5 b-tests, which were extended over 2 weeks, and thus the S5 had no classes during their B-tests. We had partial success with the toilettes in the Aristotle, as an email was sent out to remind teachers to let students go to the Aristotle toilettes in cases of emergency. We also managed to move the badly-placed History2 exam for those taking the pre-BAC in 2018-2019, with the promise that such adversial placements will be avoided in the future by the administration. In addition, the drug guidelines working group was a great success, as most changes of the students were accepted. Namely, the amended guidelines do not include “surroundings”, thus they are more legally sound and it lays down a progressive path forward to not to punish students for what they do outside of school. Of course, these are just guidelines (not a policy, so it is not binding on anyone). Also expect teachers/administrators/parents to informally reprimand you if they see you taking drugs or smoking outside school, as that is within their rights.
At the Conseil D’Education on the 20th of May, we were informed of the change of the secondary timetable on Friday. There will be no more short days on Friday for anyone, so that the classes can be spread out more. This will have the consequence of the S123 having to spend more time in the Etude, if the functioning of the Etude is not rethought (it must be noted however, that there are both drawbacks and advantages to this change). As such, we opposed the change, but proposed as a compromise that the Etude be abolished and instead used as a chill-out/study room for the S4567. The administration seems open to change on this front, but it remains to be seen how much of our proposal will be accepted (note that this and that the minutes of Conseil D’Education meeting on the 12th of September and that of the School Advisory Council on the 17th of September will all be discussed in the next Start of Year report by the next CdE Presidency and will be on our CdE Transparency Project).
The CoSup meeting on the 23rd of March centered mainly around the Locally Recruited Teachers issue (the pre-BAC confusion was also discussed). Below are the associated documents and an article on the issue for those interested.
As a reminder, here is our original and new program for 2018-2019.
With that, the 2018-2019 CdE has come to an end. We are happy with the progress we made and the representation we worked for and we hope you are too. This is thanks not only to us, but to the community as a whole coming together and achieving something together. None of these projects and changes would have been possible were it not for the students, teachers, administrators, parents and staff who came together and decided to build something, who made EEB1 the place it is today. These changes effectuated in the scholastic year 2018-2019 is the merit of Europe; it serves as undeniable proof that the ideal of European cooperation and that the spirit of Europe is not purely a dream, but that it is a vision which lives within our hearts, which we can bring to reality and build unimaginably high with if we decide to cooperate and act. Europe be livin’!
With that said, good luck to all the candidates and best of luck to the 2019-2020 CdE!
Best Regards,
The CdE
Signed: Laszlo Molnarfi. Bianca Cuevas and Theodor Florea (CdE Presidency 2018-2019)
