Principals Come Together To Address Issues In St. James

A group of principals from traditional and non-traditional high schools in St. James have joined forces to address issues affecting the education sector in the parish.

The Coalition of Principals from Anchovy High, Mount Alvernia High, Irwin High, Maldon High, Green Pond High, St. James High, St. James and Spot Valley High schools and Cornwall College have been working together for over a year to increase the effectiveness of their schools.

Speaking with JIS News, Anchovy High Principal, Lavern Stewart, said the coalition has been sharing best practices, and believe stopping negative behaviour among students starts with administrators.

“When our practices are shared for the benefit of everyone, we are not looking at a school being better than another, and I think that is important, not only for us as principals but it is also important for the schools because when we go into the schools and they see that we are a unified body… then it gives the members of staff a strength in unity and to understand that we are all in this together,” she said.

Ms. Stewart noted that the principals meet frequently to look at their individual and collective challenges and “have professional discussions in terms of how to deal with the challenges”.

“Principals are very powerful people, and sometimes, even within ourselves, we don’t even recognise the level of power that we have.  So if a single principal has this level of power can you imagine when all of us stand in a united way to really address issues?  It doesn’t make any sense we skip and skirt around the things, because at the end of the day, the issues will still be there,” Ms. Stewart said.

She cited the example of punctuality of students being a common issue plaguing each institution, which she said will be addressed on a united front when face-to-face classes resume, if the problem still persists.

“When we started there was an issue with punctuality among many of the schools and the decision was made to just congregate… just walk into the bus park because we just wanted when we entered the bus park for all the various students to see their principals, because it wasn’t a specific school issue,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Acting Principal of Green Pond High, Elisea Ellis-Spence, said that members have put aside “bragging rights” in order to effectively lead students.

“We are individuals who have decided to stand together and are committed to doing all we can to save our children; they are our school leaders. In this fight, school leaders recognise that any challenge in one school is a challenge in all schools. We have, therefore, put aside bragging rights and the thought of traditional and non-traditional schools and, as one body, we seek to lead students in Montego Bay,” she said.