Newsletters from K’iin Beh
School Updates from K’iin Beh
May 2023
Our 463 students have had another amazing year at Kiin Beh filled with learning and joy.
We initiate every morning with 30 minutes of reading, meditation and a moment of gratitude.
We started our first season of basketball and volleyball teams for our secondary and high school kids.
Every week our students perform Saturday cleanups of our community Cristo Rey to reinforce our commitment to the common good.
Our High School students will be taking their college entry classes this week and most of them will be performing paid internships at Mayakoba this summer where they will learn about teamwork, empathy and the dignity of work.
Our graduation ceremony for our kindergarten primary and secondary school will be July 5th, 6th and 7th at Rosewood Mayakoba and all our friends of Kiin Beh are invited.
On behalf of the entire family of Fundacíon Kiin Beh, Muchas Gracias for all your support and we thank you in advance for your generosity so that we can continue our mission at Kiin Beh.
"Without commitment you never start, without consistency you never finish"
Daniel Scott
President Fundación Kiin Beh
Padrino Program
April 2023
On behalf of the Kiin Beh family, we want to say Thank You to our current and future Padrinos.
Our Padrino Program is an essential way for us to continue our mission and keep Kiin Beh on the right track. The school looks amazing and our students are so happy. We are forever grateful for all the support Padrinos provide as you are responsible for being a positive change in the lives of your sponsored students.
With your continued support we are able to provide a quality bilingual education as well as instill a strong value structure with the following programs;
Extended School Hours (5 hours for kindergarten, 6.5 hours for primary school, and 8 hours for junior high and high school.
54 teachers, coordinators and team members who share a common purpose of providing the highest quality education and values to all our students and offer a place of joy.
Super leader program - students play the weekly role of a leader and are responsible supervising the homework, punctuality, complete uniform, and values of 5 other students to build up confidence.
Reading time - 30 minutes daily
Meditation - our favorite way to start the day by giving thanks and to show our gratitude.
Yoga twice a week - connecting spiritually, practicing our flexibility and bringing a smile to all our students
Extra Curricular Classes like Music, Chess, Tae Kwon Do, Basketball, and Volleyball.
Centro Educativo K’iin Beh is expanding thanks to your trust and faith and we now have 463 students and a waiting list over 150 children.
For three years, our school tuition has not increased. Nevertheless, with rising costs, inflation and all our extra programs mentioned above, our tuition costs this school year that is responsibility of Padrinos will increase to $2000 usd or $37000 mexican pesos, per student.
We hope to count on your amazing support and in June 2024 we will have our first High School graduating class from Kiin Beh Preparatorio.
Please reach out to me if you have questions about our Padrino program as we have a variety of options available to support our students for new and existing Padrinos.
Jessica Kloecker
Administrative Director Fundacion Kiin Beh
Our 451 students are Back in School
September 2022
We are so excited to see the return of our students in person.
After two years, today we finally welcomed all our students back to their classrooms and Kiin Beh is once again full of joy and beautiful smiling faces all around.
This school year will be full of new projects and programs for our students, teachers and the community. We are in the process of completing the classrooms for our brand new Kiin Beh Preparatory. High School is about learning about yourself, creating connections and enjoying time with friends, and a time when you start to feel excited about your future career and passions. At Kiin Beh, we believe in all of our students, and with the amazing support of our Amigos de Kiin Beh, our students can finally believe their dreams can become reality.
Kiin Beh has always been an inclusive community and with the passion and commitment of our 32 teachers, Kiin Beh has initiated a new program alongside Autism Speaks to make sure all of our students with special needs receive a deserving education and have a safe social environment to grow.
We will continue our many social and recreational activities for our students this year. Arts, Music, Dance, Chess and Mixed Martial Arts to name a few.
The success of Kiin Beh is only possible thanks to all of you that are part of our Kiin Beh Family. We always feel the best way to show our appreciation and say thank you is by continuing our mission of providing the children of Rosewood Mayakoba employees and the underserved members of our community the highest quality education in Playa del Carmen,
We hope to welcome you back to Kiin Beh soon !
Daniel Scott - President at Fundación K’iin Beh
Starting 2022 at K'iin Beh
January 2022
Dear Kíin Beh family,
We hope 2022 has started very well for all of you. We started the year following the instructions of our educational authorities and had to return to teach classes remotely for our Primary, Junior High School and High School.
In Kindergarten, our teachers provide online education through video tutorials, and perform classroom activities via zoom. Our teachers also offer weekly appointments to parents to guide and give them teaching strategies to assist parents while students are at. home.
We have favorably received new instructions to provide face-to-face counseling in the modality of Learning Educational Centers starting today Monday, January 17, allowing us to receive 10 students per grade on daily base. The rest of the students will connect simultaneously to class using the Zoom platform, so we return to hybrid classes in which students interact and perform individual and team activities developing digital and collaborative work skills, among many others.
We have organized our class schedules so that the students of each grade can enjoy sports games on our athletic court and use the garden daily for a defined time so we can maintain social distancing at all times.
Our Differentiator Programs such as Internal Speech, Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), Brain Gym, Super Leader, Calcularis, Mathematical Calculation, Mechanizations, Magic Words and the Experience of Values, as well as the extra-curricular classes of Chess, Music, Arts and Yoga are carried out daily to foster the emotional and cognitive development of our students.
We have successfully completed our enrollment period for the next school year with 97% re- enrollments and 3% new entrants as we continue to grow and to improve our education system for the children of Playa del Carmen.
We will continue to care of the health of our educational community and reaffirm our commitment to increase the educational standards of each grade level so that the different class modalities that the lock down has generated do not affect the learning process of our students.
Hope to see you soon in Mexico !!!
With love,
Raquel Mitre
Principal at Centro Educativo K'iin Beh
Happy Thanksgiving from your K’iin Beh Family
November 2021
We are so blessed and grateful this holiday season to have the support of so many of you that allows us to continue our purpose of offering quality bilingual education to our now over 430 students (We now have more than 430 Students! Can you believe it?) from Kindergarten all the way through the first year of High School.
We celebrated this holiday weekend with our loved ones and most notably with some of our Rosewood Mayakoba Family at Kíin Beh on Thanksgiving morning. We were so appreciative to see all the guests serving a delicious breakfast to our students and teachers and taking the time to get to know better the members of our community. It really inspires all of us at Kíin beh and demonstrates that we are not alone in our mission.
We have many exciting initiatives to share in the near future, but on this day we just want to express our gratitude to all of you. Fundacíon Kíin Beh could not prosper without the generous support of our caring community such that on this day we just want to say once again, Thank You from the bottom of our hearts for your goodness, solidarity, and continued commitment that gives us the opportunity to care for our students and the extended family of Fundacion Kíin Beh.
Daniel Scott- President of Fundación K’iin Beh
Kíin Beh Students are Back to School
September 2021
Friends of Fundacíon Kiin Beh,
Today is a special day and we can only feel grateful as the school year started on this beautiful Monday morning and we welcomed back in person 180 of our students to Kiin Beh. The pandemic continues to be a major challenge in Quintana Roo as all Public Schools remain virtual for an indefinite period. On behalf of the entire family of Kiin Beh, we want to say thank you for your incredible support and concern over the past year as we dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic in Playa del Carmen. Due to your generosity, our teachers and students had the tools to stay connected virtually and learn safely. Like all schools, we continue to adapt on a consistent basis to provide the best education possible to our students while always following local health protocols. All of our 43 teachers and staff are now fully vaccinated and we have been able to reinitiate our school this year under a hybrid system. This year, we launched Kiin Beh Preparatoria after our first ever Junior High graduation this past June (Picture Above). Children now have the option to come 2-3 days a week in person and the rest on-line, while families also have choice to continue with all their studies on-line. We continue to follow all local health measures and face masks are required for all students and teachers while in classrooms. Raquel and the team have implemented new programs to develop and strengthen the self-esteem and emotional intelligence of our students with the intention to ensure they continue to be both healthy and happy. We appreciate your continued investment in the future of Kiin Beh and with the growth of our high school, your donations give us greater purpose and provide us stability to continue our mission at Fundacíon Kiin Beh. We hope to welcome you back to our school on your next trip to Playa del Carmen.
Daniel Scott
President at Fundacion K’iin Beh
Fundacion K'iin Beh 2021 Updates
January 2021
Friends and Family of K'iin Beh,
A new year begins with new challenges in our community, but renewed hope,inspiration and purpose for all of us at Fundación K'iin Beh. We start this year as we finished 2020, with uncertainty as Mexico still only permits remote learning in our state of Quintana Roo. Yet at K'iin Beh we continue with our mission, whether it is in-person or online, to provide a quality bilingual education and stay connected as a positive support system to all our 329 students.
We sent a note in November asking for your support and there are no words to express how grateful we are for your donations. With your kindness, we are now able to provide all our students from Kindergarten and elementary school with tablets and all our junior high students and 26 teachers with laptops to study more effectively at home.Many of the families who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic have stayed in our community because of the support they receive for their children at Kiin Beh.
This year due to your generosity we will start with our most exciting project: Preparatoria K'iin Beh (K'iin Beh High School). Many people do not know about the lack of High School education in our community, but in 2019-2020 more than 2,000 students in the state of Quintana Roo were not able to attend High School, as there are simply not enough schools.
In our city of Playa del Carmen more than 700 students did not enter High School for this reason. The long-term financial stability of K'iin Beh has always been a tremendous challenge and furthermore the uncertainty of what happens to our students after 9th grade remained our greatest anxiety. Now with your generous support, Raquel, Jessica and I cannot help but tear up every time we realize we now will be able to expand our mission for the students of K'iin beh.
In the coming years, our goal is to provide education to more than 150 high school students. Next year, we will start slowly with just 10th grade in August and provide education to our 20 students graduating from 9th grade. We will add a grade with each following year. Our students are truly grateful and understand the importance of staying on track with their education, as all of them have now the confidence to reach for their dreams and be the next leaders of our community.
We know that we have a great deal of work to do and will continue to need your support to make the high school a reality as our costs will increase with each additional student. In a time of such sadness and suffering around the world, it is even more important to be grateful for all that we have in life and celebrate moments of joy. We ask that all of you celebrate with us the start of this next stage of our journey at Fundación K'iin Beh.
Thank you all for being part of the amazing family of K'iin Beh and for your tremendous support. Please continue to stay up-to-date at www.kiinbeh.org and see how we show our appreciation to all of you by how we take care of our students and community.
With Gratitude,
Daniel H. Scott
President of Fundacion K'iin Beh
K'iin Beh needs your support
November 2020
Dear Friends and Family of K’iin Beh,
I hope this letter finds you and your family safe and healthy during these uncertain times. K’iin Beh has not been immune from the challenges that all of us have faced in 2020. Nevertheless, remaining true to our charter and ethos, we remain optimistic and driven to continue to grow what we’ve built.
Thanks to your generosity over the last 9 months, we have been able to fully support the families and teachers of Centro Educativo K’iin Beh in their efforts to educate the children of Cristo Rey.
Our mission since the COVID-19 pandemic began has been twofold: to guarantee that all our students can continue to study and learn, even if within the new normal of virtual learning, and to support the people who make that learning possible, the teachers of K’iin Beh.
The pandemic has had a significantly greater impact on poor communities, and Cristo Rey is no exception. More than half of our students’ parents have lost their jobs, and 20 families have relocated away from greater Playa del Carmen region, unable to afford the cost of living. Because of this, we are more committed than ever to keeping our monthly tuition exceptionally low.
Everyone who attends K’iin Beh pays something, but all 322 students receive financial aid from the foundation, with tuition still starting as low as 300 pesos ($15) per month.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we retained our entire faculty and staff at full pay and benefits. We have also invested in technology for virtual learning, even installing an antenna to provide Internet connectivity to the entire community of Cristo Rey. Unfortunately, bringing the Internet to the community doesn’t always mean that the children can take advantage. Some families do not have access to tap water, electricity, or paved streets. In these cases, it’s understandably difficult for the family to justify the expense of the devices necessary for remote learning. This a gap that we hope you will help us bridge.
I am asking for your financial support to help us to continue our mission to provide exceptional learning, even if it must happen at a distance. To adapt to this new reality and continue to build for the future, we need to your support for the following:
ONE TIME COSTS –
Laptops for students for online classes – $40,000 USD
Average cost per laptop, $150 USD
80% of our 322 students are taking their online classes via a smart phone
Blue light blocking computer glasses – $6,500 USD
Average cost per pair of glasses, $20 USD
322 glasses for all students
Construction of a high school – $125,000 USD
4 complete classrooms
2 bathrooms
2 offices
MONTHLY COSTS –
Payroll – $17,500 USD / month
This covers the salaries of 19 teachers and 15 administrative personnel
Monthly operational costs – $2,000 USD / month
Services covered: internet, electricity, water, & school supplies
If you wish to contribute in any way above, please reach out to Jessica Kloecker (jessica.kloecker@kiinbeh.org) or visit our website (www.kiinbeh.org/donate) to make a donation.
We hope that soon, pending certain government regulations, we can offer in-person daycare along with extracurricular sport activities, including soccer, basketball, and dance lessons (all with the appropriate COVID-19 restrictions). We plan to follow of a rigid protocol, regularly testing our teachers and administrative team, as well as continuing to practice physical distancing. Our eagerness to support the education of our community will not come at the cost of allowing this disease to spread through the community.
I thank you, as always, for your support and generosity to fulfill our mission of providing quality bilingual education to low-income children throughout Playa del Carmen. Please reach out to me directly with any questions about the school.
Warm Greetings,
Daniel Scott
President, Fundación K’iin Beh
Kiin Beh Newsletter
October 2020
I hope you are enjoying health in the company of your family in this uncertain time. I would like to share an update on this year’s activity at Centro Educativo K’iin Beh. We successfully started this school year on the 24th of August with 321 students, with all students receiving some form of scholarship. The school year began remotely with the use of technological and digital tools to continue providing education to our preschool, elementary and junior high students. This has been a real positive challenge for our students and teachers, who have been in constant training on how to use electronic devices for their academic growth. Our main educational tools are Google Classroom for assignments and Zoom for students to participate in online classes taught by our teachers from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm. We are also using the following academic platforms: Oxford Discover to learn the English language, Santillana online for the preschool and elementary school subjects, and SM SAVIA for Junior High students. 170 of our students received donations of English and Spanish textbooks that they use during this school year. Our students take their classes via their cell phones or electronic tablets and our teachers teach classes from our campus thanks to the new internet antenna, that also supports the Cristo Rey community. We maintain social distancing and face masks are required inside K’iin Beh. We are committed to supporting our students’ academic success and emotional and physical well-being. Our online courses incorporate yoga, physical education, music class and value discussions that stimulate their wellbeing in this time of lockdown. We miss seeing our students everyday but we stay connected as much as possible with new regulations. We hope to welcome the students back to classes when the state of Quintana Roo has a green light in the pandemic of COVID-19. It is important for me to inform you that our school community is healthy and following all CDC guidelines and offering extra prevention measures. We will continue doing the same preventive measures when our students return to school. Thank you for your unconditional support and generosity to fulfill our mission of providing quality bilingual education to low-income children who will have a prosperous future.
Warm greetings,
Raquel Mitre Principal at Centro Educativo K'iin Beh General and Academic Director Fundación K'iin Beh