No concession to concerned parents of St Brigid’s pupils
AN ultimatum was presented to parents seeking an investigation into issues at St Brigid’s Primary School early last week.
Parents who had not given a written undertaking of support for the school’s ethos by the end of last week would be asked to leave the school, director of Catholic Education Ron Dullard said at a meeting attended by more than 100 people, including parents, grandparents, a former student and school staff.
The meeting had been advertised in a letter to parents as “an opportunity for the community to see that you have a stable and cohesive community”.
Mr Dullard, who chaired the meeting, said there would be no investigation.
Much of the debate revolved around how issues were handled by the school and the Catholic Education Office, with few people willing to say what the issues were.
Mr Dullard said the complaints process was to go to the principal first and — if the issue couldn’t be resolved at that level —then go to him.
If there was a complaint against the principal, the date, time and place should be outlined in writing to him.
“A Catholic community should not be divided, we should be doing things first and foremost the right way,” he said.
“If people have a complaint the person needs to know.”
In response to some debate about a popular teacher leaving and numbers of staff leaving the school in recent years, Mr Dullard said two staff were at present on stress leave, and two going through performance appraisal.
The allegation of falling education standards was “demonstrably not true”, he said.
At the end of the meeting Mr Dullard outlined his plan of action for the following week.
All parents had the offer of a meeting with principal Monique Field and executive principal Tony Curry.
“The offer is there and I urge people to take it up,” he said.
“It’s got to be about your child and what’s best for them.”
Mr Dullard said any parent who had a specific problem should put it in writing and he would address it.
“We’re standing by the principal —a community is a community and they stand by each other,” he said.
By the end of the week, anybody who was still estranged would be asked to give a written undertaking that they were supportive of the ethos of the school.
“If they can’t, they will be asked to leave the school. We can’t continue to have this divide,” he said.
Supporters
MANY parents at the meeting spoke in support of the school and the principal, saying their past problems had been sorted out.
One said she simply wanted the problem sorted out becauses she was sick of the segregation between parents.
A teacher offered reassurance to parents that he saw nothing but happy and smiling faces among the students.
School board chairman David Jenkins said many were dismayed by the division in the school, which all could have been avoided.
“People always have the opportunity to visit Monique,” he said. “I’ve never seen a harder working person than Monique — take the opportunity to see her face-to-face.”
A number of parents questioned what the issues were, saying the school and principal had been nothing but supportive.
Mr Dullard said he had been able to find nothing to investigate.
Issues
PArent Michael Southwell, who is also a Bridgetown Councillor, said there were problems with the process.
“The complaints need to be taken seriously,” he said. “It’s the normal action of most places that the complaint is respected and some investigation takes place.”
Parents could find it intimidating to make their complaint when the subject of the complaint was in the room, Mr Southwell said.
“In my experience you make your complaint to someone higher in the organisation,” he said.
Another parent said students had been bullied because their parents’ names were on the list of parents calling for an investigation.
Certain parents had been sworn at because their names were on the list.
Another parent asked why the Catholic Education Office had sent the list of parents’ names to the school.
Mr Dullard replied the list had gone back to the principal because it was “an operational matter”.
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