The gates of St James High School in Montego Bay were padlocked Monday morning when teachers and students showed up for classes.
Uneasy truce
Classes set to resume at problem-plagued St James High, but...
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Classes are expected to resume at problem-plagued St James High School in Montego Bay this morning, but it is unclear how long the uneasy truce will last.
The school’s gates were padlocked on Monday, the second time this year, as interpersonal conflict between administrators and the board drag on.
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Principal Joseph Williams is convinced the gates were padlocked because of what some saw as a failed promise to make changes to the board. Williams and board Chairman Christopher McCurdy have had a very public feud for years, with both insisting that the other needs to step down.
“Obviously, it is staff, parents, and students’ reaction to the fact that assurance was given that… they would send a new person for the board but the letter came on Friday that there is no change,” Williams told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.
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He was referencing a meeting held after a dust-up between himself and McCurdy at the school in February.
“I think it is the reaction to that; because many persons are not pleased to hear that, after a month, the assurance which was given is not so,” added Williams.
However, executive director of the National Council on Education Merris Murray told the Observer that she was unaware of any such assurance being given. She thinks there has been a misunderstanding.
“At that meeting, the stakeholders were able to air their concerns and we went back to the drawing board to look at what is a feasible, practical solution. So, we have to be careful about promises being made,” stated Murray. “I don’t recall making any promises in that meeting. All we did was prepare our report and presented it to the Permanent Secretary [Dr Kasan Troupe].”
She said it was decided that both Williams and McCurdy should meet with a mediator.
Even before McCurdy’s stint as chairman, the principal has had conflict with others in the role.
“The bottom line is that Mr Williams is a difficult man to deal with, but he has a lot of talent and support and I am surprised that the Ministry of Education has not been able to mediate effectively and that we have this continuity problem,” Reverend Ronald Thwaites, who was education minister from 2014 to 2016, told the Observer late Monday afternoon.
St James High has a history of being a breeding ground for violence and Williams has been credited with the significant shift away from weapon-wielding fights to more focus on academic success. However, there has been concern that his leadership style is outdated and autocratic.
In April 2014 an education ministry assessment of the leadership, management and operations of St James High described its academic, financial and administrative performance as “less than satisfactory”. It also described the then school board as “compromised”. Williams was principal then but McCurdy was not board chairman. The report concluded with recommendations for the then education minister, Thwaites, to decide on whether or not to make changes to the school board. It also recommended that the minister should instruct the education ministry’s regional office to “enhance its visibility” at the school; for the school board to commission a forensic audit into the school’s financial affairs; “immediately discipline the principal in keeping with the relevant sections of the education regulations” and that the school’s leadership should get training to “enhance their competencies”, make changes to the curriculum to “better provide for students’ needs”; and adjust its organisational structure, among other measures.
The recommendations, contained in a 96-page report, were made in response to 62 issues documented between 2008 and 2014.
On Monday, Thwaites was unable to recall details of the case and whether anything was done to correct the issues during his tenure. However, he said he was shocked that the ongoing impasse has not been resolved by the education ministry.
In a press release, the ministry’s permanent secretary spoke out strongly against Monday’s disruption at the school.
The press release said an investigation has been launched and charges could be laid against those found responsible. It also said Troupe “condemns the attempts of trespassers who, through their cowardly and misguided act, denied the key stakeholders, our students, of their well-prepared learning space this morning”.
While the padlocks were removed and face-to-face classes could have resumed, a disruption in water service because of work being done by Jamaica Public Service Company forced early dismissal of the morning shift while the evening shift had classes online on Monday.
