I. SCHOOL NAME, ADDRESS, REGISTERED OFFICE AND STATUS

§1

The school’s name is “The independent institution Institut Sankt Joseph”. The school was established in 1858 by the St. Joseph Sisters’ Order Society. The school was until 31st
of March 1976 run as a private school of the St. Joseph Sisters Order.

Section 2. The school office is in the municipality of Copenhagen. The school operates from the address Dag Hammarskjölds Allé 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø

Section 3. The school is a private educational institution that operates independently. The school has the CVR No.: 11-96-28-15 (Institute Saint Joseph).

II. SCHOOL AIMS

§2

The school builds all its work on the Catholic-Christian view on life and man. Its specific features are designed to create a value-based school environment, where the Gospel spirit of freedom and love is alive.

Section 2.  The school creates a framework, where the individual’s understanding of Christianity can grow, and where the individual’s belief can mature and be clarified.

Section 3. The school is conscious of its ecumenical task

Section 4. The school should seek to form and train students for democracy and equality as a way of living.

Section 5.  At the school, students have the freedom to develop their abilities and special potential for the benefit of the individual and the community.

Section 6. The school works to preserve the child’s spontaneous joy.

Section 7. The school will strengthen students’ courage to make ethically based choices.

Section 8. The school is run according to current, existing law and other rules for private and independent schools, etc.

Section 9. The school must provide an education that is comparable to what is commonly required in public schools.

Section 10.  Explanatory comments on the school’s purpose may be included as an appendix to the bylaws.

III. SCHOOL BOARD AND LEADERSHIP

§3

Section 1. The school board is responsible for the overall management of the school and is accountable to inform the Ministry of Education that the school’s finances and operations, including the administration of government subsidies, are consistent with the school’s statutes and with current, existing laws and other rules pertinent to private and independent elementary schools.

Section 2. The principal is responsible for the daily educational leadership of the school, cf. §6, section I in the Act on private and independent schools, etc. The principal is also responsible to ensure that the daily operation of the school is sound and in accordance with applicable rules and regulations.

Section 3. The board consists of 5 members, who are appointed for two-year terms and are elected as follows:

a. One member appointed by the St. Joseph Sisters leadership.

b. One member appointed by the Catholic Pastoral Council Executive Committee.

c. One member appointed by the Catholic Bishop of Copenhagen.

d. Two members elected by and among the parents of the pupils at the school according to the rules regarding election of supervisors.

Section 4.  The board members appointed according to section 3, point a and point b as well as one appointed member in point d will resign in odd years per. November first, while the second elected member in point d and the under c appointed member will resign in even years also per. November first. Each year, the parents’ circle elects, for a one-year period, a set number of alternates for the members in point d above. Alternates are automatically accepted on the board, if one or both members mentioned under point d retire from the Board.

Section 5. Written notice of who is appointed as board members in accordance with §3, section 3, point a, b and c, is to be submitted in writing no later than the 1st  of November in the year in which the appointment has taken place.

Section 6. Board members cannot be removed during this period.

Section 7. The elected board members under section 3, point d shall not resign from the board, if their children during the election period have left the school against the parents’ wishes.

Section 8. The Board should seek to have a balanced composition of women and men cf. §11, section 2 of the Act on Equality between women and men.

Section 9. School employees may not be a member of the board and can only participate in the election of the board, when they are members of the parent circuit at the same time. The Board of Directors may decide that the school management, i.e. the principal and vice principal and a representative of the employees may attend Board meetings without voting rights. In the treatment of individual cases concerning people involved with school administration or individual employees, the Board may suspend meeting attendance of one, several or all of these.

Section 10.  Board members are not, in the practice of directorship, subject to the decisions of the organization, institution, association, etc., who have chosen or appointed the member.

Section 11. The Board shall have its own Chairman and Vice Chairman. The Vice Chairman shall take the Chairman’s place in his or her absence.

Section 12. Board members must be of legal age, and at least a majority, including the Chairman, shall be registered in the CPR registry and reside in Denmark.

Section 13.  Board members are not personally liable for the school’s debt, but may be liable under regular Danish Tort Law.

Section 14.  Board members may not receive fees from the school funds for the performance of the duties of a director.

Section 15. A board member shall resign from the board immediately, if the member no longer meets the qualification conditions for being a member of the Board cf. Act on private and independent schools, etc.

Section 16.  In the case of a board member leaving the term as such, by general disqualification, a substitute will be appointed for his or her remaining term of office. If this is not possible, a new member shall be appointed as soon as possible for the remainder of the period. By using a substitute in the board during the term of office, the number of members (two) appointed by and among the parents shall be maintained.

Section 17. The board, the principal, and other staff of the school, must act in accordance with the provisions of the Public Administration chapter 2 on incapacity and chapter 8 on confidentiality, etc.

Section 18. The Board of Directors constitutes a quorum, when at least half of the members attend personally. The Board makes decisions by simple majority vote, however, with a number of decisions that can only be taken by a special majority, cf. §3, section 22 and §10, section two. They cannot vote by proxy or by letter.  In case of parity of votes, the Chairman – and in his or her absence the Vice Chairman – cast the deciding vote.

Section 19. The Board shall keep minutes of its decisions. Every director has the right to have his dissent be recorded. The minutes sheet shall be signed by the members, who participated in the meeting. Established incapacity must be recorded in the minutes.

Section 20. The Board establishes rules of procedure for its activities, which shall include provisions on how convening board meetings must take place. Rules shall be amended to the statute.

Section 21. The Board shall appoint and dismiss the principal and other school staff. The authority to hire and dismiss other school personnel may be delegated to the school principal. The school principal, however, without delegation being necessary, can hire and dismiss substitute workers and other temporary assistants for short-term service.

Section 22. The Board of Directors shall decide on the purchase, sale and mortgaging of real estate.

A decision to purchase, sell and mortgage immovable property and other significant purchase and lease requires that at least 3 members vote in favour.

Section 23. The Board of Directors shall determine the amount of school fees and the amount of parental fees for the After School Program.

Section 24.  The Board decides on any general questions about the school, the Board of Directors wishes to decide, cf. as stated in §3, section 2 that the school principal has the daily educational leadership of the school.  However, the provisions on the Board of Directors and the Catholic Bishop of Copenhagen jointly decide on certain changes to the statute (§10, section 3) and school abandonment, unless the closure is needed to meet legal requirements (§11, section 1), and the competencies of the parents (§7, section 14).

IV. ACCOUNTING

§4

The school year follows the calendar year.

Section 2.  The Board is responsible for the annual preparation of a true and fair view of financial statements for the school in accordance with applicable rules.

Section 3. The Board is responsible for ensuring that the financial statements are subject to a satisfactory audit in accordance with applicable rules.

Section 4.  The Board is responsible for ensuring that revised and original signed accounts and audit reports are sent to the Ministry of Education before the 15
th
of April of the year following the financial year. All board members must sign the accounts and declare on their honour that they fulfil the conditions for membership.
 

Section 5. The Board shall elect the school’s accountant.
Section 6. Parents of students and permanent staff of the school always have the right to have knowledge of budgeting, accounting and auditing decisions, as approved by the Board. The Board may extend this right to others. The Board may lay down detailed rules on the right of access to school conditions. Information that is subject to the provisions regarding confidentiality in Public Administration may not be disclosed.

V. PARENTS: CHOICE OF SUPERVISOR, ETC. PARENTS MEETINGS AND PARENTS REPRESENTATIVE

§5

The Parents circuit consists of parents of children at the school.

Section 2. Parental rights under this statute and the Regulations and the Act on private and independent schools etc. is for the person or persons, who have custody of the student or foster the child, however, the person who foster the student cannot make a decision on school start or duration.

Section 3. The school maintains a list of those who have registered that they belong to the parent circuit. The list changes only after reasoned – if necessary also documented – written request with the following notice to the person or persons, who are recorded on it or deleted from the list.

§6

The Board is responsible for ensuring that the parents circuit is convened for meetings, where the parents circuit must choose one or more persons or a local council to oversee the students’ position in Danish, arithmetic / mathematics and English, and oversee the school’s overall educational basis from an overall assessment commensurate with what is usually required in public schools, as well as with the language of instruction being Danish.

Section 2. The Board is also responsible for granting the Ministry of Education and the municipality information on who is elected as supervisor, the municipality is obliged to undertake supervision, if the parents do not elect a supervisor, and the parents circuit is informed about the annual inspection report.

Section 3. The Board is also responsible for ensuring that the parents´ circuit selects the supervisor / supervisors, who provides guidance for the parents´ circuit or his or her own supervision of the school’s regular business, including the fact that they provide an education commensurate with what is usually required in public schools.

§7

A parents’ circuit meeting is to be held every year at the school or elsewhere in the home municipality by the end of October. The Board is responsible for ensuring that the parents’ circuit is convened for the parents meeting. The notice must be made by ordinary mail, e-mail or another secure transmission method with at least 14 days’ notice specifying the agenda. The meeting notice for parents must contain the following agenda:

1. Election of the Chairman.

2. The Board and management will inform the parents about the school’s financial, operational and educational matters.

3. The election of members of the Board is pursuant to §3, section 3.

4. The determination of the maximum number of alternates and selection of alternates, cf. §3, section 4.

5. Any other business.

Section 2.  At parents’ meetings, where a supervisor is elected cf. §6, section 1, the agenda is supplemented with the following points:

1. Determination of functional period (maximum of 4 years) for the school supervisor.

2. Decision on whether supervision should be carried out by one or more persons or by the local council.

3. Determination of the maximum number of supervisors and any breakdown in supervisory activities.

4. Selection of supervisors.

Section 3. The notice must state the current rules for the election of directors and – in the years when supervisors should be chosen – the existing rules for selection of supervisors and supervisory rules. For both elections, the notice should state that any parent has the right to propose candidates at the meeting. The Board is responsible that in both the notice and the meeting of parents, it is clarified that the elections are concerning the choice of parent representatives to the Board and the election of supervisors. Rules of Order in the election of supervisors are also applicable for the election of parent representatives to the Board.

Section 4. Each member has one vote.

Section 5. There can only be given power of attorney to a person with whom, you have joint custody of a child at the school.

Section 6. The parents meeting have quorum irrespective of the number of members present. The parents’ meeting makes decisions by simple majority vote.

Section 7. The Board and management of the school have the right to attend and speak at parents constituency meetings. In addition the parental circuit even decide whether people outside the circle of parents can participate in meetings of parents and, in such case, who can participate.

Section 8. School officials and candidates for the Board and the supervisor cannot be chairman of parents at meetings.

Section 9. There must be records of what is approved at the meetings of parents. The minutes documents shall be signed by the Chairman.

Section 10. Selecting Actions are to be secret, if it is the wish of one or more members of the parent constituency.

Section 11. At the election of board members, alternates and supervisors, each parent cast a vote on the number of members to be elected to the Board, respectively, on a number of people, corresponding partly to the highest number of substitutes decided and partly the highest number of supervisors decided.

Section 12. Candidates are selected in order of the size of the personal votes. In the event of a tie, lots will be drawn.

Section 13. Re-election of directors, alternate directors and supervisors can take place.

Section 14. The meeting of parents’ competencies are listed in §3, section 3, point d, §3, section 4, §6, section 1, and §6, section 3.

Section 15. The parents of children at the school select parents’ Representatives, for which a special set of rules are set. Parents Representatives aim to contribute to the best possible cooperation between the school, pupils and parents.

VI SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

§8

School operations conducted by government grants and private coverage including school fees for pupils and parent contribution for the After School Program under the Act on private and independent schools etc. and possibly by contributions from others.

Section 2. School funds may only benefit the school and its’ teaching.

Section 3. Any surplus by the school management is assigned to the school.

Section 4. Contributions to the school do not give right to any part of the school property or benefits of any kind.

Section 5. The Board shall administer the school’s resources for the maximum benefit of the school and must take due financial consideration.

Section 6. School cash to be placed in accordance with the provisions of the Act on Private Independent Schools etc. and must not be placed on accounts, etc., which others, besides the school, have access to.

VII. POWER TO SIGN

§9

The school is signed for either by the chairman and the head teacher jointly or by one of these in conjunction with the Vice Chairman.

Section 2. When buying, selling and mortgaging or other dispositions of school properties, at least 3 members of the Board of Directors have to sign on behalf of the school.

Section 3. The subscription right cannot be delegated, and there can be given no entitlement to sign, cf. section 4.

Section 4. The Board of Directors may decide that the school principal in an exact, defined scope and under the responsibility of the Board is authorized to perform general management functions, when this is necessary to achieve an appropriate daily management.

VIII. AMENDMENT OF SCHOOL STATUTE

§10

Unless otherwise provided below, the School Board may with a simple majority adopt amendments.

Section 2. To change the statutory provisions for school purposes (§2), the composition of the Board (§3, section 3.) of the Articles of Association (§10) or on school abandonment (§ 11), it is required that the change be adopted by a 4/5 majority of all board members.

Section 3. Proposals to amend the statutes on school purposes (§2) and the composition of the Board (§3, section 3.) will also have to, in order to be valid, be approved by the Catholic Bishop of Copenhagen. The same applies to amendments of §10, section 3 and §11, section 1.

Section 4. School Bylaws and future statutory changes must be approved by the Ministry of Education with regard to provisions on the school board and economic conditions.

IX. CLOSURE OF THE SCHOOL, ETC…

§11

Resolution on the school’s closure falls on the Board only after prior approval of the Catholic Bishop of Copenhagen. However, this approval is not required, if the closure of the school is necessary in order to meet the legal requirements.

Section 2. Should the school cease doing school business in accordance with §2, sections 8 and 9, it must be abolished.

Section 3. It is for the Board to inform the parents circle of any decision on decommissioning and on the reason for such decision. The orientation must be done immediately after the decision on the closure is taken.

Section 4. It is for the board to inform the Ministry of Education and the municipalities, where students are established, of school closure.

Section 5. It is the Board’s responsibility to inform the Ministry of Education, if the school suspends payments, declares bankruptcy, or is otherwise in danger of terminating school activities.

Section 6. The Board is responsible for maintaining the school’s assets and that the financial statement on the occasion of the school’s closure is made in accordance with applicable rules and that the school’s net assets are used in accordance with the statutes.

Section 7. Any excess funds must with the Ministry of Education’s approval be used for school purposes at one or more Catholic schools supported by the Law on Private Independent Schools etc.

Section 8. It is for the board to act on, until the financial settlement of the school’s assets and liabilities has been completed in accordance with applicable rules, including the school’s net assets used in consistency with the statutes.

Adopted by the school board:
Copenhagen, September 14, 2006