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Faber Comments On Gwen Liz Situation
posted (April 17, 2018)
While that was the situation this morning, this afternoon we got comment from the Minister of Education Patrick Faber. Faber has several interests in this because of his close ties to the school as area representative and head of the Ministry which owns and administers this high school. Plus, the person at the centre of the controversy, Alifah Elrington is a UDP colleague of his. This afternoon he explained how despite all these ties, he's never used a strong hand at the school:

Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education/Collet Area Rep.
"I read in the teacher's letter that there is some accusation of politics being played. Let me be clear, that I have been the representative for the Collet Area for 15 years. I have been the minister of education that manages the Ministry of Education which is the proprietor, the owner of Gwen Lizarraga High School. It is a government school and if anybody is going to play politics or they will accuse anybody of playing politics - that has to be geared towards me. I make that point because I have never in my 15 years interfere in the everyday runnings of Gwen Liz nor have I as minister of education gone in there to big-stick anything. But I will make it clear again that that school is owned by the ministry of education. Miss Alifah was presiding as chair. The chain isn't put there by the ministry, the chair is elected from among the members of the board who are selected according to the education rules. Miss Alifah became the chair and was presiding over the matter concerning Dr. McKay. Where the politics came in, if there was any politics being played. Is that upon the municipal elections being concluded, there was seemingly a kind of quick push on the part of the Opposition to quickly name a new representative and to get Miss Alifah kicked out. That I will tell you posed a problem for the school, because we are in the middle of trying to resolve the matter with Principal McKay or the matter of Principal McKay and that is why for us as the proprietor of the school, the board is the managing authority, but we have representation on the board to try to keep Miss Alifah there until the matter is resolved. The community rep of the board is selected by the principal and after consultation, but it comes from the community there, which is the Collet community. We have been the entity, my office, the Collet Education and Resource Center, has been the entity that has consulted or the principal has consulted in order to name a representative."

And while Faber says he never used any big stick approach with that school, the issue remains that one of the reasons the teachers are rejecting Elrington is because she does not reside in the Collet Division. But Faber made it clear that an individual does not have live or be from the area to serve as the Community Rep.

Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education/Collet Area Rep.
"They write about Miss Alifah not living in the area. Well you can select anybody to be your representative. The community representative does not have to reside in the area, but has to look out for the interest of those who are from the area and so in order to allow for the work to go on unimpeded and in fact to have us resolve the matter of the principal in an expeditious way, because the school is in limbo when you can't move head or tail because you're in this situation that you all know have been going on for a while now. This is why as the community representative or as the person responsible for the community consultation with the principal, we ask that Miss Alifah be allowed to representative the community to maybe to finish the work and that is what I'll say to the teachers when I get there in a little while."

An integral part of the dispute is Principal Dr Lorna Mckay who has been on suspension since last year. She has many sympathizers and supporters within the teaching staff but Faber made no bones about the fact that he believes Dr Mckay was a poor leader who misguided the school.

Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education/Collet Area Rep.
"I will say this on the record, the school under the leadership of Ms. Mckay was going in the wrong direction. However much the TSE does not believe that action on the part of the board to punish the actions of the principal based on the evidence, I am convinced in my mind and to me this one of the other loopholes in our system where we find wrongdoing happening and we try to address it and then there are challenges legally and otherwise. People trying to save what is there and what is clearly gone wrong. As the representative of the Collet Division. I am sorry and furthermore as the minister of Education which I repeat is the proprietor of this school I cannot sit back idly twiddling my thumbs knowing that a situation of failed leadership has prevailed at that school for so long and because of technicalities and semantics things might be allowed to continue. I am sorry if we are wrong we will take our licking down the road when it comes to that."

We did reach out to Elrington for comment this afternoon but she told us she had no knowledge of the situation. We could not get through to the Principal.

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