Philipsburg:--- The Minister of Education Dr. Rhoda Arrindell met with the President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) Claire Elshot and WITU member Stuart Johnson on Wednesday to discuss the much contested appointment of the Lionel Conner School management position that was awarded to Glenda Mathew White.The meeting was arranged on the request of the President of the WITU Claire Elshot. Elshot told members of the media in a brief statement that she as President of WITU wants to address the possibility of an appeal on the appointment. Elshot said Johnson is a member of the Windward Island Teachers Union and he wants to address the situation since he applied for the position. Elshot said that the meeting with the Minister was fruitful and the Minister plans to get back to the union with her final decision on the appointment after she meets with the division head of Public Education on the matter.
In the meantime, Minister of Education Rhoda Arrindell said eight persons applied for the four vacation positions, she said they all went through the selection process and during the final selection process the law on FBE and LLMA was used as the basic criteria to select the candidate. Minister Arrindell said the selected candidate Glenda Mathew-White met all the criteria based on the law.
President of the WITU Claire Elshot said Glenda Mathew-White did follow part of the Management Training on FBE and that what was reported earlier was not the total truth.
SMN News further learnt that Mathew-White submitted an appeal to the Minister after the budget amendment debate which took place in parliament at the end of July. The source said that Mathew-White who was on sick leave for two years scored very poorly during the interviewing process but she managed to explain the Minister her reason for the poor scoring in the appeal. It should be noted that Glenda Mathew-White held the position of Acting Manager of the Lionel Conner School for some 17 years. She took over from Leader of the National Alliance William Marlin and now Member of Parliament when he took leave of absence to take up his position in public office. The position of school manager became totally available earlier this year when Marlin made his 60th birthday.
Those appointed are Silveria Jacobs as Principal of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Primary School, Rita Bourne-Gumbs as Principal of the Genevieve De Weever School, Glenda Mathew –White as Principal of the Lionel Connor School, and Alice Samuel as Principal of the Charles Leopold Bell School.
SMN News also learnt that Stuart Johnson dispatched a letter to the Council of Ministers when he learnt that his appointment was overturned by the Minister of Education and the position was awarded to someone else. It should be noted that while the Division on Public Education called Johnson by phone and informed him that he was the selected candidate for the position they did not submit an advice to the Minister prior to making the phone call. The appointments were highly discussed during the Council of Ministers weekly meetings on Tuesday. SMN News posed several questions to the Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams at the Council of Ministers press briefing on the issue since the Minister of Education who was in the Government Administration Building at the time did not attend the press briefing. Prime Minister Wescot Williams made clear that each Minister is responsible for the decisions they take when she was asked if the decision by the Minister was already carved in stone and if the appointments were made in accordance with the law. The Prime Minister said there is no mention in the constitution of St. Maarten when it comes to representation in front of the courts because each Minister is responsible for the decisions they take.
In the meantime, the head of the Department of Education Quincy Harrigan informed SMN News that he being head of the Department did not make any contact with Johnson to inform him on the selection. Harrigan said he could not say if the Division head of the Public Education Sector made the call. Harrigan said he understands the statements and the reference to the Department of Education because in the past public education fell under his command but that is no longer the case.
