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Concepcion Presbyterian School in the Corozal District was recently placed under the management of the Ministry of Education and from all indications having a board of directors in place has stirred up controversy at the school.

CTV3 News understands that the school board issued a letter to the Ministry of Education for the evaluation of Principal Esther Mendez. The board, we understand, recommended that Esther Mendez be removed from her post as principal by the 31^st of January on the grounds of insubordination, orchestrating the ousting of the board, lack of proper financial management, promoting division among staff members and obstructing the work of the board.

Those are really strong accusations made against the head of the school. But parents of the school are not buying it and are strongly opposing to the boards recommendation. In protest of the board’s decision some parents decided not to send their children to school today and held a demonstration in front of the school compound.

Aniseto Correa, Parent

“I am here protesting since the General Manager and the Board had proceeded the way not it should be done, as I know far up to today that Mrs. Mendez, the actual principal of Presbyterian has received some kind of written letter in which the GM is directing her, as demoting her and accusing her of two subjects in which I am not really acquainted what are those two subjects that Mrs. Mendez is being accused.  Next point is that BNTU has got this problem into his hand and has met with the General Manager and they have come into an arrangement, now as far as I know last week Thursday, verbally the General Manager has come and threaten Mrs. Mendez who is the principal and saying that he will proceed no matter what the BNTU has arranged with him and that is why the rumors have come out and the parents are here protesting not to be remove as the principal of this school Presbyterian.  All this crowd have come into an agreement that we will not be sending our kids  here to school so that we can get into an arrangement by today and if don’t get a pacific arrangement then this protest will continue until this is being resolved.”

We also spoke to President of BNTU Corozal Rural Branch Mario Mesh who told us that his concern is the children who are presently out of class.

Mario Mesh, President of BNTU Corozal Rural branch

“The parents are totally against what the board and the management of Presbyterian school Concepcion are doing against her principal and that is why they are fighting.  As president I want to make a statement that it is important to everybody to realize that the most important people affected right now are the students and it is important that management and the board see that they are a small group of people, because of this small group of people the children are affected and the parents are creating this commotion in view of what they intent to do, the accusations are mentioned were written by the board and that is why I made a statement based on the person I represent in the case Mrs. Mendez.   In actuality, what happen we have sat prior to that together we have met with him, we have finalized a most rational decision, however he came here and falter on his word according to the principal because any statement that management would do should be written rather than verbal so that is one things that not should have been done because we are still in process of writing a letter to him and the board in relation to the agreement we had made with her as the principal now I have not met with him and the board, we need to do that and we need to sit down and present our position as it comes in relation to her situation.”

Ismael Vallejos, the General Manager of the Board, met with parents today in order to resolve the situation but at the same time he remained firm when it came to the process of evaluation being conducted on Principal Esther Mendez.

Ismael Vallejos, General Manager of board

“I sense that a working relationship with the Board and Principal has not been the best but I think they have been trying to work along so now their concern is that they want to know what the accusation or allegations against the principal is, as I said as the general manger I could only make official statements and since the accusations are still accusations and the process is not concluded yet that I could not even if they want me to say something I cannot until I have an official decision on this issue, I would believe that the process is still on, in terms of evaluating the principal now the union members are the representatives are here we have met once and I look forward to meeting with them at least two more times and finally the evaluation will speak for itself I don’t think we should have any fear as to being unfair I am sure that the union will do an excellent job in safeguarding the rights of the teachers so I wish the parents could understand that this will end up in a just and fair manner and in no way our own prejudges will interfere documented information.”

So far no agreements have been made. We will keep following this story and bring you the details as they unfold.

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