ASP: Reforms Breach Agreement
Bermuda’s Association of School Principals [ASP] today [Jan. 13] said its collective bargaining agreement was breached when the Education Ministry installed an “executive principal” at Prospect Primary School last week.
The ASP had already filed two grievances against the Commissioner of Education, saying they were “gravely concerned with the Department of Education’s flagrant disregard of the ASP’s position.”
Earlier this month the ASP was informed by the Commissioner of Education of a “new reform model” in which executive principals will partner with existing school principals.
The ASP have rejected the plan, citing potential disruption of the school environment, and impact on sustained improvement on teaching and learning.
But the Education Ministry has stood by its decision to assign temporary executive principal Terry Cox to Prospect Primary School to work in conjunction with current principal Shangri-La Durham-Thompson — the first of a number of “interventions” which are planned, according to the ASP.
“The Ministry has indicated that the nature of the working relationship between the executive principal and existing principal in the school is to be that of working ‘in conjunction with each other or working together as one would with a ‘partner’,” the white-collar union said in a statement this afternoon. “The ASP was informed by the Commissioner last week, however, that the relationship was to be one which would have the executive principal assuming all of the responsibilities of the principalship herself while delegating authority to the existing principal as she sees fit.
“This would mean that the existing principal would not be carrying out her normal principal responsibilities. This form of ‘support’ serves to impugn the reputation of the existing principal, undermine her authority and could be a major disruption to the learning environment for staff and students alike.
“This is not consistent with the ASP’s understanding of what it means to work in conjunction, and therefore this model is unacceptable to the ASP, as it breaches the Association’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
The ASP continued: “The Ministry has informed the school staff and the ASP that this intervention is to be the first of many. We have no idea which schools will be next as the Ministry has, to date, not informed any schools that they are low performing, including Prospect Primary.”
The ASP’s Full Statement Appears Below:
The Association of School Principals [ASP] has no desire to see this current dispute between our organisation and the Department and Ministry of Education play out in the media.
The Ministry’s commitment to the insertion of support around literacy and the curriculum is welcomed by the ASP in general and the existing principal in particular, as she has been requesting such support from the Ministry of Education, with little response, for some time.
However, The Association of School Principals believes that it has a responsibility to ensure that members of the public have a better and more complete and accurate understanding of this very critical situation relating to the placement of an executive principal at Prospect Primary School or any other school.
The ASP is committed to following the Education Act 1996, and expects the Ministry of Education and the Department to do the same.
However it is the ASP’s position that what has happened in this case represents a cherry picking of certain sections of the Education Act 1996 and a failure to comply with all aspects of these and other sections.
We further believe that in doing so, the intent of the legislation has been compromised, with schools and school personnel being treated unfairly as a consequence.
Such treatment can only serve to disrupt the learning environment and to negatively impact teaching and learning; an outcome about which the ASP cannot remain silent.
The ASP feels so strongly that this is not the leadership direction we need to achieve sustainable reform of our school system that it has filed two grievances against the Commissioner of Education, to date, on various issues related to this decision.
As it relates to recent events which specifically involved Prospect Primary School, the unannounced arrival of a Department of Education team, led by the Commissioner of Education, towards the end of the day on Friday January 6, interrupted the teaching and learning.
A meeting with the principal to outline details of the support model did not take place, but a meeting with the staff, in the absence of the principal, was held and prepared letters informing parents, were sent home.
The Ministry insists that this move is meant “to immediately impact student performance”. Clearly the move itself was immediate, however it remains to be seen how, what has been described by some as a “hostile takeover”, can have an immediate impact on student performance.
Research tells us that sustainable change and improvement takes time; student growth must be measured in increments over time, once a focused and collaborative plan has been developed and implemented with teachers.
Top-down and imposed change tends to be non-sustainable and research shows that it falls off once the authoritarian pressure/presence is removed.
The Ministry also refers in its press release to this intervention model involving an executive principal, as the second “intervention” to be implemented at Prospect Primary this academic year.
It is important to note, however that the first “intervention” to which they refer might be more accurately described as a partnership. A partnership which began among four school principals all of whom volunteered to participate and have been working together as colleagues, collaborating and supporting each other.
The Ministry has indicated that the nature of the working relationship between the executive principal and existing principal in the school is to be that of working “in conjunction” with each other or working together as one would with a “partner”.
The ASP was informed by the Commissioner last week, however, that the relationship was to be one which would have the executive principal assuming all of the esponsibilities of the principalship herself while delegating authority to the existing principal as she sees fit. This would mean that the existing principal would not be carrying out her normal principal responsibilities.
This form of “support” serves to impugn the reputation of the existing principal, undermine her authority and could be a major disruption to the learning environment for staff and students alike. This is not consistent with the ASP’s understanding of what it means to work in conjunction, and therefore this model is unacceptable to the ASP, as it breaches the Association”s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Ministry has informed the school staff and the ASP that this intervention is to be the first of many. We have no idea which schools will be next as the Ministry has, to date, not informed any schools that they are low performing, including Prospect Primary.
The Association of School Principals hopes that this information will help the public to better understand why it has taken this position. Consequently, as a group, we cannot stand by silently and accept this “support” model in any school.
Why blame the principals when students aren’t performing –
a. parents are expected and should be supportive first of their children and Teachers/Principal in order to get their children to meet levels,
b. if the children aren’t able to do so – get them tested for learning disabilities…. Not every child learns the same way.
c. MOED is setting standards above the level of most of our children and those that need assistance – this has been cut out of the schools.
d. MOED needs to be revamped – let’s get people in there whose heart is for our Children, their needs and their future…
@ wondering
IN reading your post, I could not hepl wondering whether you have an inherent bias. I am not aware of any expectations that are too high for our children. On the contrary, I often find that our expecations are too low.
Is it appropriate to expect a 16 year old student to read fluently and with comprehension?
Is it appropriate to expect 16 year olds to do basic math and understand numeracy?
Is it appropriate to expect our children to ahve a genral sense of Bermuda’s social, policital and business development?
Is it apprpriate to expect our children to want to achieve something positinve in their lives?
I could go on and on. If any of these answers are yes, they do not happen over night? The positive values and desire to learn must be instilled at a young age and nurtured along the way.
‘Falling down is not the problem for any of us – the problem is the lack of hope that prevents us from getting up again,’
What “Support or Intervention Model” did the Ministry of Education implement to assist this school principal and others in the first stage of school improvement? It sounds as if the Model was not correctly implemented or developed. There also appeared to be no mentoring or follow-up regarding the Intervention Model to turn the school around. This second Intervention also appears to lack careful plan. Was the development plan for the school based on a sound conceptual framework, and effective partnerships among major stakeholders in education; accountability record, and adequate resourcing, with evidence-led planning and monitoring also playing a prominent role?
Did the Department of Education Officers provide the following to assist the school:
•creating more structured curriculae and learning materials;
• Specific teacher development programmes at the school on a consistent and regular basis, including the formulation of teacher competency frameworks and
teacher training;
• school resourcing;
• evidence to provide a base for planning and accountability (research, monitoring and evaluation
•management development.
It looks as if the Ministry of Education may have fallen down on implementation and aquedate monitoring of the development plan.
“It looks as if the Ministry of Education may have fallen down on implementation and aquedate monitoring of the development plan.”
Appears that way. Then again virtually everything the PLP (fail to) do fits this description so it should really come as no surprise.
This is the failure of persons in positions at the Ministry of Education, not so much the government. The technical Officers, Commissioner, Assistant Directors and PS, not the government. All governments expect for Civil Servants to carry out their responsibility accurately. Often many fail to do a adequate enough job. Under the West Minister systems, Minister are limited in terms of how much they can direct officers to act.
accept this “support”
First I would like a job description for Executive Principal.
Second, where are the replacement education officers,for those that retired, that assisted with ensuring core GCSE subjects Math, Language and Science had expert support? This would be greater asset to all teachers and principals
Lastly what happened to principal autonomy??
Sorry I couldn’t resist! Principal autonomy is probably why this is taking place. It didn’t work for this Principal.. She needs guidance apparantly.
I must be the first to say that there is some very good teachers but lets face it some are just collecting pay there is nothing wrong with accountability the teachers that make the most noise are the worst ones I know I lived with one dated a few oh well that makes me dumb too but i dont teach
I have looked through all the on-line comments about this story and I have not found anyone supporting this Principal except her own union, who finally spoke out today. The Teachers Union has not objected. I have seen comments from parents and the PTA supporting the MOED changes. I have read comments from former parents saying that she was a very poor, unhelpful Principal. From all of this I can only conclude that the MOED is doing the right thing for the children. Stick to your guns please MOED as I think you have finally found the courage to make some difficult, long overdue changes and don’t stop here, keep going as I am sure this is only the beginning of more positive changes.
@ Larry & Darrell, it is not about personalities or feelings of the parents and teachers. it is about the “Process”. Its about turning a non-performing school around using “Best Practices.” Did the Commissioner of Education and Officers carry out their responsibility effectively, to ensure that this non-performing school received the level of “Intervention and Support” it should have? If the concerns of teachers, parents and students were mention, what did the Department do to work with the Principal/teachers and school staff to help address these concerns. Was the development plan for the school based on a sound “conceptual framework”, and effective partnerships among major stakeholders in education; accountability record, and adequate resourcing, with evidence-led planning, professional development long-term plan, and monitoring also playing a prominent role done effectively?
At the end of the day, the buck stops with the Government, and by extension, the Minister!
Come on Minister, Ministry, Commissioner, ASP and BUT – you can do better, you must do better. Our children and the broader Bermuda deserve better than this.
A more mature approach is to realise that you are jointly responsible for managing our public education system for the benefit of our children and the future Bermuda. Whilst the Ministry may have a final say, surely there should be more collaboration in these interventions. Based on publicly shared information, it appears that there wasn’t any consultation. I can only hope that I am wrong on this point and I have missed something that demonstrates that there was collaboration amongst the aforementioned groups.
The ultimate focus for education must be our children. In this instance, it appears that we are focussing on the personality of the Principal as opposed to student outcomes.
Parents should remain as the champion of their children and play their role in ensuring that their child is prepared for school. In this regard there are a few things that all parents should do: make sure their children get adequate rest, provide a reasonable diet for them (which means to minimise junk food as a start), review and sign their homework (as time consuming as that may be), be aware of what their children are learning in school through contact with their teacher and generally attend all functions which their children are involved in – the ideal would be to take a half day vacation each school year and spend the half day at your child’s school.
Taken as a group, the public should be informed about the overall performance of the children, after the information has been shared with the principal and teachers. That appears to be the failing in this instance. What is the basis of measure for the school that deems it to be poor performing? Has the information been shared with the principal and staff?
Another aspect that is of equal if not more concern is whether or not all of the other schools have been ‘tested’ in a similar manner and what was the outcome? Do we have other poor performing schools which by extension indicates we have poor performing students that are being passed through the system? If yes, we are doing a disservice to our future Bermuda.
My hope in this instance? I hope that we do not see many more of these ‘he said, she said’ posts in the media. Instead we should have an experienced and retired former principal to sit down with both sides to decide a more sustainable solution for Prospect and any other school that is similarly affected. We do not need to see the public sparring that is being played out in the media – the only winners are the media through increased sales. The BIGGEST LOSER is our children and that is simply not good enough!!
As I have previously posted, adults ‘fight with words’ as we have seen in this instance, which has at a minimum destoyed any professional credibility for Dr. Durham Thompson in the eyes of her school parents, teachers and student body. If we translate this dispute to the general public, the result is more social disruption and violence, including gun murders.
Some may think my comparison is unfair but I emphasise that if those that are charged with teaching us can not resolve their differences, how can we expect the community at large to resolve our differences in a constructive manner?
Everyone outside can speculate all they want……..guess what, the other primary principals are doing just fine, if the principal was doing her job, this wouldn’t be in as issue. If you believe all the garbage on the news, you are badly informed…..go to the school yourself and ask a teacher, the entire environment has changed and for the better……gee I wonder why??? This is not a which hunt, it’s saving our children……but I guess everyone wants to keep the old one because she is their relative etc…..like that is going to help a child succeed in life……hire me because everyone liked my principal…….I know I can’t read properly, but boy oh boy was my principal cool.
It is really sad because we can talk about Ministers, PLP, OBA, yet the fact of the matter is not one of these people wether it be the government or opposition, have their children in any public school. So the question is do they really care, or is just political spin just to make it appear like something is being done and at the end of the day, it is majority black children that are being impacted. Until the sons or daugters of the gangster wannabees who have money and are placing their children in private schools have a major incident in one of these private schools, and Bermudians have no place left to run and place their children in a private school, then we will want to seriously address all this point the finger, political and social nonsense. If all these boards and ministers and commissions etc. believed in the public system, THEY WOULD HAVE THEIR CHILDREN IN THE PUBLIC SYSTEM. THEY DON”T!!!!!!
Actually, Minister Marc Bean has a daughter and son in a public high school, and Minister Wayne Perinchief has a son in a public high school. But, the irony that all others you mention do not(many are in private school) does not escape me.