Javascript Menu by Deluxe-Menu.com

SKNBuzz Radio - Strictly Local Music Toon Center
My Account | Contact Us  

Our Partner For Official online store of the Phoenix Suns Jerseys

 Home  >  Headlines  >  NEWS
Posted: Monday 1 December, 2014 at 2:11 PM

BHS Principal responds to accusations on WAHS’ Facebook Page

Principal Carlene Henry-Morton
By: Stanford Conway, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRINCIPAL of the embattled Basseterre High School (BHS), Carlene Henry-Morton has responded to a number of serious accusations recently posted on the Washington Archibald High School’s (WAHS) Facebook Page.

     

    The post on the Facebook Page, according to Henry-Morton, is titled “SHIFTING THE SHIFT” and the accusations range from malicious damage to furniture by BHS students to strike action and go-slow by staff member of the school.

    The Principal is of the view that the contents of the Facebook Page were endorsed by management of the WAHS and she had decided to “set the record straight” by placing the concerns and allegations under the microscope in an effort to determine their veracity and validity.

    She noted that the concerned WAHS parents and all other interested parties must tell and be told the unadulterated truth, adding that they “must be given the real facts of how we arrived at this juncture and not feed or be fed a steady diet of misrepresentations, innuendo, inflammatory rhetoric and deliberate untruths”.

    Arbitration

    Henry-Morton made recalled that the decision made by members of the Arbitration Panel that broke the recent deadlock between the BHS and the Ministry of Education (MoE).

    She noted that the proposal to go to arbitration was a decision made by the MoE and the parties involved had unanimously accepted the proposal with the full understanding that the ruling of the Panel was binding and final.

    “I find it disingenuous now that the Panel has spoken, unanimously ruling in favour of the shift, there are persons who are clamouring for a ‘plan B’ in the face of the panel’s ruling ‘That a shift system be implemented with a facility-sharing arrangement with the Washington Archibald High School (WAHS), with immediate effect’

    Some Unmentioned Facts

    The Principal explained that the WAHS had chosen the morning shift to hold classes, beginning at 8:15, which is 45 minutes later than the normal start time of the previous shift when they had shared the institution in 2012, and 15 minutes earlier than the start of a regular school day.

    She pointed out that the WAHS had rejected her school’s offer that they would commence classes at 7:00 a.m. to allow for an earlier end to the school day. As a result of non-cooperation, she added, concerned parents of students attending the WAHS are up in arms that every day over 200 of them arrive late to school.

    Henry-Morton however questioned if their lateness was caused by the shift per se or was it a stubborn refusal to adjust to the new time, noting that that is proof of the shift being unworkable. 

    “The vast majority of BHS students arrive to school well before our 1:30 start time because their parents ensure that they do and we constantly encourage them to come to school for 12:45, giving us ample time for registration and assembly before our shift starts. We certainly do not have over 200 students arriving to school after the first two periods daily! Moreover, to compensate for diminished staff numbers (many were still on sick leave at the start of the shift), teachers with a free period and members of management are assigned to corridor and patrol duties to cover classes where subject teachers are absent; greatly reducing instances of unsupervised classes,” she explained.

    With further reference to the 2012 10-week shift system, Henry-Morton explained that classes started at 12:30 for the afternoon session and ended after 5:00.

    “Many teachers,” she said, “taught both morning and afternoon shifts, with half an hour for lunch. No one questioned the legality or nutritional implications of a reduced lunch hour and extended work hours then. Rather teachers and students were saluted, commended and celebrated for their resilience and willingness to adjust and make sacrifices. In 2014 however it is the greatest sin to ask WAHS to take half an hour for lunch, although by 1:15 p.m. school is over for them for the day!  Is this a case of Animal Farm where some students, teachers and schools are more equal than others?”

    Saying Thank You

    On behalf of management and staff of the BHS, the Principal expressed heartfelt thanks to those patriotic members of staff, the students and parents of the WAHS who have accommodated and collaborated with them to mitigate the challenges of the circumstances.

    “We also join the Concerned Washie Parents in extending an invitation for BHS parents to visit the WAHS and see for themselves what really happens during the BHS shift:  how long it takes for their children to enter the facility each day because the huge eastern gate that can easily allow lorries to enter remains firmly closed and locked while only one gate at the front of the facility is opened to first allow the WAHS students to trickle out, then to allow the BHS students to enter (remember the BHS shift is already 45 minutes shorter than the WAHS shift), they will see for themselves the congestion that results as their children stand in the hot sun in the street and on the sidewalks awaiting their turn to enter the premises, that the reason why students appear to be liming on the corridors is that some are actually taught on corridors and in nooks and crannies while several classrooms and a hall remain closed and unused – ostensibly reserved for WAHS fifth formers who are not in school.” 

    BHS Teacher Abused

    The Principal suggested that on acceptance of the invitation, parents of students attending her school could inquire why two weeks after the fact nothing has been done about a WAHS student who verbally abused a BHS teacher and some students in the street, who used obscenities, made personal remarks about her and repeating the ultimatum that BHS had until the end of this year to get out of WAHS, although the matter was reported to MoE personnel who referred it to WAHS’ management for their intervention.  

    She informed it was by sheer coincidence that the parent of the student visited the school on a separate matter and was told of the incident.

    Henry-Morton noted that the parent was aghast that no one from WAHS’ management had notified them of the matter and had apologised profusely for the child’s behaviour. The parent had also indicated that they have other children who were past students of the BHS and they still have pleasant memories of their time at their alma mater.

    “Parents may also request an explanation why WAHS abandoned the system used during the last shift that effected a seamless transition between shifts, why no schedule has been created (as advised in the shift document) for the use of specialist rooms, why some teachers are told that labs are reserved by WAHS teachers for SBA’s but discover that the WAHS teachers did not really reserve the labs, why no sooner than the BHS shift starts WAHS students begin mowing the grass, why each day during the BHS shift there are  unsupervised WAHS students on the premises sitting and playing on corridors, laughing and chatting loudly in the stairways, others rattle the louvres at the back of buildings and throw objects into classrooms? Is this by design or sheer coincidence? These acts are distractions and disrupt BHS students’ learning,” she said. 

    Unanswered Questions

    Speaking to the issue of seven blurred images on the school’s Facebook Page, Henry-Morton asked: “Why hasn’t anyone from WAHS management ever reported these cases of malicious damage to anyone from BHS management? Why has no one from BHS management ever been shown any item of furniture/property that has been defaced or destroyed? Why resort to Social Media when we are on the premises every day, many of us from around 8:00 a.m.?”

    The Principal declared that no one from the BHS staff or management is aware of damage to any desk during a fight, as claimed in the post and at a recent WAHS Parent-Teacher meeting.

    “Moreover,” she added, “where is the proof that the purported damage was done by BHS students? Are there photos, videos, eyewitness accounts of BHS students committing these acts? Then produce them so that these very serious matters can be properly and expeditiously investigated and addressed.”

    She continued: “After all of the rhetoric and adamant insistence that BHS will not be at WAHS past December 2014, who really stands to benefit from perpetuating the perception and providing evidence that there is wilful and malicious destruction of furniture? Is this a ploy to ensure that the much repeated December 2014 ultimatum is enforced? Is someone now desperately resorting to perfidy, fear-mongering and manipulation of the facts to prove that the shift cannot work? Is someone in serious denial about the Arbitration Panel’s ruling that ‘...the current problem at BHS is primarily a health issue...The students and teachers of the Basseterre High School (BHS) be removed from that facility with immediate effect, in order to alleviate the ongoing impact on the health and safety of all concerned’? How do we know whether this post, these images are nothing more than a red herring, thrown out to distract from the substantive and real issue of the plight of the BHS students and teachers, a situation that is not of our making?” 

    Principal Henry-Morton emphatically stated that they at the BHS have neither the time nor the appetite for the divisiveness, bitterness and vindictiveness on which some people seem to thrive.

    “We stand ready to work together with the WAHS to implement the shift in a manner that gives to teachers and students from both institutions equitable access to the facility. That is what ‘facility sharing arrangement’ means! Let us all invest our limited time and much needed energy in creating an atmosphere that is conducive to teaching and learning,” she said.

    Henry-Morton lamented that her teachers and students are relieved to be away from a facility that has been deemed a threat to their health and safety, and all they want now is to get on with the business of Education.





     
Copyright © 2024 SKNVibes, Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy   Terms of Service