New board members SCS

The Daily Herald writes that the new board members of Saba Comprehensive School (SCS) were presented at Tropics Bar & Restaurant in Windwardside by Commissioner of Education Chris Johnson on Tuesday. The new board members are La-Toya Charles, Stacey Simmons and Gied Mommers. A declaration was signed by all three new SCS board members and Chris Johnson, Sjoerd Slagter and Wim Littooij, who are all members of Education Task Force (ETF).

All three new board members are experienced in the field of education and have built up a respectable track record over the years. Commissioner Johnson was personally responsible for the recruitment and assembly of the new board.

Last month, ETF had meetings with almost all the stakeholders of SCS. ETF spoke with parents, including Saba Educational Alliance, the teachers, the director, politicians, the former board and the former director. Based on these meetings and the information received, ETF as a group, is convinced the new board will be able to respect and represent the interest of all the different stakeholders. ETF is convinced it is not in the interest of SCS to change the constitution of the school. With the presentation of SCS’s new school board, ETF feels that the stability and authority of SCS will be fully restored for years to come. With the implementation of the new board members, ETF said it has made an important step to ensure the educational quality, as well as stability on educational development on Saba.

ETF had two main objectives after being assigned to assemble the new board in October, 2014. Firstly, they were to review the goals and priorities of the previous task force over the last two years. Secondly, they were to evaluate the current situation of SCS on several fields, like academic levels and curriculum development. According to ETF, all of these objectives have been met. ETF coaches will soon develop a draft working plan, which will be analysed by its director Anton Hermans. After the director’s analysis and additions, it will be reviewed by the board and function as a contract between the board and the director.

In 2016, the schools on the BES (Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba) islands have to comply with the Dutch educational standards. A total of six million dollars has already been made available to upgrade education on the islands. Commissioner Johnson mentioned being very pleased with the board presentation on Tuesday. “This is a very competent team with plenty of experience” Johnson said.