And, now, the irony in all this is that, as the old saying goes, “while di grass di grow, di haas di staav.”
In this case, that would be a reference to those two teachers at Graham Creek Government School. We’ve shown you the arduous 7 mile hike they have to take to get to work. And for all that, they do not currently get a hardship allowance. They will only get it when the new list comes into effect - which, right now, looks like no time soon.
We asked President Smith about that:
Jules Vasquez
"Now the irony in all this is according to the deputy chief, Cecilia Ramirez, Graham Creek won't get it's hardship until it's new list goes in because Graham Creek was not in the 2000 hardship list."
Hon. Elena Smith - President, BNTU
"Correct, because they were not existent then."
Jules Vasquez
"Fair enough, so then is this an injustice specifically to Graham Creek? Because until the new list goes into effect, there's no hardship allowance for Graham Creek."
Hon. Elena Smith
"Jules Valley of Peace, the assembly’s management, that school was on the list before, there has been no revision to that list since that list was put forth. Yet Valley of Peace was taken off the list and those teachers stop getting hardship allowance for about 3 years now. Nobody can explain to those teachers who took them off and why. The Catholic schools in the same vicinity and they continue to get their hardship allowance. So it's not just a matter of Graham Creek getting on the list now, it's a matter of schools who were there before, where we have no reason why they were taken off are now being placed back and they are being referred to as new. They are not new, they were there before, you owe them 3 years. So while these new schools will have to wait a bit longer to get their hardship allowances, it is best that we address this matter properly and we have all those teachers who are supposed to be getting what they should be getting, that they get their fair share based on what they have to go through. As opposed to rushing a list and the teachers are cheated of what they need to be getting. So we have spoken to our teachers at Graham Creek and they fully understand and they support what we are doing."
And while they’ll have to wait for the hardship, Smith says that since our story aired, they have gotten a number of donations for the teachers at Graham Creek.
Email
Print