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Is It Time for Saba Educational Foundation Board to Go?
I’m following all the articles in the Daily Herald and Saba–News along with all the commentaries and my question is, “is it time for the board to go?”
Parents and residents feel left out and without a voice in how their children should be educated. There also seems to be a general feeling that this board doesn’t care about our opinion. They pay lip service but that is as far as it goes.
I believe this board is unlawful. It has no power to act for several reasons which I shall list below.
- The board continues to break Dutch law since 2010 when the Netherland Antilles dissolved; it became mandatory that each board have a parental advisory board.
- Two board members show no signs of stepping down although their 2 years of service as stated in the foundation’s bylaws have passed.
- The board broke foundation’s bylaws – they do not meet monthly, they do not vote on personnel issues in writing and they do not schedule meetings seven days in advance in writing with an agenda as required.
None of this happened when the board scheduled its meeting with Hemmie van Xanten back in April to discuss which teachers were returning for the coming school year. In fact, Floor van der Zwan, their consultant, sent the email to the principal informing him of the meeting. The email was sent Friday afternoon and the meeting was to be on Monday. When he told her that it was not possible to have the meeting, Raquel Granger called him and told him the meeting would be on Monday at the stated time.
If you believe that it’s time for the board to go, add your comment to this opinion piece.
Friends of the Parents of SCS
I agree: the board should step down.
However, unfortunately, the same applies to several of the Boards on Saba. The SCS Board has made a clear demonstration of incompetence, No doubt about that.
Given the specific question of the Friends of the Parents of SCS, I do not want to discuss the other issues now, but it must be made clear to the Residents, that there is a lot that stinks on Saba. Maybe not as much as on the other islands, but still, it stinks.
“There is a lot rotten in the state of Saba” ( Free after Shakespeare)
Yes they must step down or be pushed off. Time for new people with vision in education to take the wheel
She denied this rumour in front of a room of parents a month ago. Hmmmmm we shall see.
This is true. She clearly stated in that meeting that she would not take the director’s position. That was not her ambition. But let’s be honest. Her sister cleared her path by not renewing contracts so that she can take this position her way. It all has been prepared long time ago with the support from OCW in Bonaire. While she is on pension now, the board has offered her a contract to stay on and accept the role of director. Just a few more days and it will all become clear. Do our children benefit from these politics? Time will tell.
Well, today marks the day where all teachers and new director should be on the island, according to the board’s promise in July. So far the school board has been very quiet and didn’t make any announcements of the new arriving staff members. This means that I strongly believe that not all positions have been filled and that not all teachers and director are on the island. As a result of this, the board breaks their first promise they made to us as parents.
Secondly I understand that not all ordered books are in. This automatically means that the students will start again the school year without the proper books. I was also old that the 90 donated lockers by the medical school are now located in the science storeroom, a room about 100 square feet. How does the board see that 100 students at the same time are using the lockers in a far too small location? This is definitely a safety issue. Storing the dangerous chemicals now in an old store room is another safety issue and moving the cleaning lady to the old storeroom within the smelling boy’s toilet is absolutely a safety problem. It shows you that the board is playing “school” probably with instructions from the newly hidden director. Maybe a suggestion to the fire department to check out the new safety conditions created in the school.
Lets’ wait till Monday 18th and see if there are more untrue promises popping up.