PHILIPSBURG:---The blatant lack of transparency from the Catholic School Board to the parents and staff of St. Dominic Primary School leaves a pile of unanswered questions, uncertainty, and severe worry for parents about the future of our children’s education.
The recent hush-hush changes at the school leave a very bad feeling about parents who have always worked with the school to secure the best quality of education for our children. It is totally unacceptable and disrespectful for official letters informing staff and parents of developments at the school weeks or months after the rampant circulation of rumored changes to the school teaching and general staff.
Nothing is done to address ongoing frustrations at the school for both teachers and parents. Simply, our kids (and the good teachers) deserve better.
There are also serious concerns about the status of the school board. This is another area where transparency is severely lacking. It is very unclear who is serving on this board, what their terms are, are they compensated, what does the board statutes state about the term and powers of the board?
Parents, and as far as we know staff too, have zero ideas when last a board election was held for the school board.
St. Dominic Primary School is a leading institution of learning on this island or so we thought until the pandemic hit. Covid-19 made it abundantly clear how ill-equipped the school board was in handling that transition to online learning and quickly adjusting to having teachers properly trained to handle the online medium.
Our school has shared space with Sister Marie Laurence for the past three years and with St. Joseph School for the last year. This sharing of space did not help matters at the school. What makes it worse is queries about the status of this sharing space were left unanswered or ignored by the school board. The overcrowding of school facilities affects the learning and growth of all pupils taught on the premises.
This past school year has been harder than many previous ones. Tensions further heightened. All the while parents relied on the school board for information and for advice on their plans for the school to allow for proper preparations for their child's academic future. This either never materialized or came after rumors and stories circulating in the school community.
The School board does not listen to the complaints of parents or take them into consideration. This must change as soon as possible.
Parents expect, no demand, more from the school board. Even though the board has announced shocking changes at the school for the coming school year, parents still would like to see a virtual meeting perhaps via Zoom organized by the board where parents can log in and hear from the board directly the reason for all of the changes.
Parents needed to understand the reasons behind the high teacher turnover yearly. There has been no clarification to parents. No consistency for our children. To have a batch of long-time teachers leave altogether is beyond alarming and worrisome. Where is the continuity for our children, for the school? Who will ensure the St. Dominic's School "standards" are upheld?
Troubling and in need of explanation is why the school board has slashed the budget for care staff so harshly that this coming school year will see 1.5 social workers and 1.5 psychologists for all catholic schools.
It definitely appears all the school board cares about is the bottom line and surplus accumulated through government funds. Our local teachers are not appreciated and are not listened to by the school board.
One of the things that have been noted is that the school board pushes to fill the schools with foreign teachers who won't complain or affect the status quo because they are on work permits and vulnerable to the whims of the board. Teachers are not being hired in the best interest of our children. It is about bottom lines and control. The school board has shown time and again that it operates in a dictatorial matter.
Worse yet, there are a number of known bullies in the school who had been suspended many times for bad behavior. They come back to the classroom and repeat the behavior, they are allowed to stay because the talk is their parents have family connections on the school board.
Yet another thing that needs to change ahead of the new school year is the restart or reigniting of the PTA. There has been no PTA meeting for the longest while. This connection between the parents and teacher has to be reconnected. The school board and management need to respect this body, the PTA that is, and listen to suggestions, complaints, and queries from the PTA.
Signed by Concerned Parents
