The man who has to manage this disruption of classes is the General Manager, Raymond Shepherd, who has temporarily taken over as Local Manager of the
school just to deal with this crisis.
This evening, we got an opportunity to speak with him, and we asked if there is any plan in place to deal with the 7 days of classes that the students
are have lost so far. He told us that there is.
And we apologize for that break – apparently due to a naitonwide blackout. We're back with the news now and we resume with General Manager on Nazarene
Schools, Raymond Shepherd talking about the plan for the kids who have missed so many days of classes:
Raymond Shepherd - General Manager
"Ever since the matter of the disruption of classes commenced the education board; of which I am the chairperson. We had drafted up a plan as to what
will be required of our teachers. That plan has been communicated to our teachers in the first instance, to let them know that in fact they are
required by the education rules to do make up classes. The teachers are willing and have received the plan very positively and so I am confident that
the students will in the long run not lose anything. I have also tried to communicate this message to parents that while the students are missing out
now, the teachers are required and will be conducting extra classes to make up for the miss times."
"Although the board has a formula, the details of it will be worked out with the staff and so; as soon as we can get beyond this phase in the
disruption, we are going to sit down with the staff and work out the details of how it will be done. We have communicated to parents that 1: in the
first instance what they did; I think the day before yesterday was illegal. They decided that this is a course of action they wanted to pursue and so
they sought the legal means by which to get it done. I understand that there was this demonstration today, unfortunately I had to be in a workshop
today and I wasn't there but I had other members of the board who were there to observe and try to keep the peace as best as we are able to. While the
parents are doing that to show their discontent with the way things are at Faith; our encouragement, our advice to them is you must send your children
to school."
Daniel Ortiz
"It appears at this time that message is not getting across. Is there anymore you can do? Or have planned to do to give a better pitch to the parents?"
Raymond Shepherd - General Manager
"I think what the parents what to see is the agreement we came to in principle between management and the principal. They would like to see that come
to fruition and so I would like to also assure them at this time that we are making every step to make that a reality. At this point I am not able to
say definitively what day or what time we will finalize this agreement but we have agreed and that's a good start. I am anticipating that perhaps by
Friday this week, the agreement between us will be signed and then we can move on to the next phase."
While they have mapped out a plan for the kids – it seems like negotiations are stuck at this point. When we spoke to Pech's lawyer Leroy Banner this
evening he told us that she is still the principal and says nothing can be done at this point because even if Pech wants to apply for long leave or be
transferred – she cant be because there are only certain times of the year where a teacher or principal can apply for long leave and a transfer can't
be done after a school year has started. Banner told us that Pech will meet with Ministry officials tomorrow morning. Very importantly, only 125
students showed up for school today – that's lass than the 180 from yesterday – and less than a third of the 411 registered students .
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