PHILIPSBURG:--- President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) Stuart Johnson held an urgent virtual meeting with the Government subsidized school boards.
"The payment of the vacation allowance throughout all schools on St.Maarten has my full attention and I will not stop until everyone receives what is rightfully due to them," Johnson stated.
Present in the meeting was representatives of the SVOBE, SKOS, MAC, CBA, SPCOBE, and NIPA School boards.
The meeting was held on ZOOM on Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 at 1:00 p.m.
“One of the main concerns coming out of the meeting was that school boards feel they are being held hostage with no communication forthcoming from Government,” Johnson said.
“Why is the Government not responding to the school boards or even to the WITU?” Johnson questioned.
“You write letters and receive no response which is totally unacceptable,” he added.
The 12.5% cut to the annual subsidy of the Government subsidized school boards is having a severe effect on the quality of education and the working morale of staff members.
“Government should be leading by example!” Johnson stated.
"One of the concerns expressed by School Boards is that they received several letters of instruction from the Government of St. Maarten, mandating that the laws on the Cost-cutting measures must be upheld. Additionally, the school boards are required to submit an overview of the percentage calculations for the 12.5%,” Johnson said.
“In the meeting school boards mentioned without an explicit instruction issued by the government in writing to School boards, releasing them from liability and retracting the instruction on the 12.5% ( for which the vacation allowance is 6%), the boards are not in a legal position to execute the vacation allowance,” Johnson concluded.
A joint letter by the school board and WITU will be sent to the Minister of Education Drs. Rudolph Samuel to convene an urgent meeting with the WITU and the subsidized school boards within a short timeframe.
