About 45 persons turned out Tuesday night for the second in a series of town hall meetings on St. Thomas. Originally called to deal with the government's financial crisis and the impasse with the American Federation of Teachers, the meetings increasingly have focused on the latter.
Tuesday's gathering focused on site-based management and other concepts to determine if savings can be realized in the Education Department's budget, which could then be diverted to teachers compensation. That focus was in keeping with the first such town hall meeting, in which resolutions were adopted to institute site-based management and earmark all monies saved by future restructuring of Education for reopening wage negotiations for teachers.
Site-based management is already endorsed by Education and the collective bargaining units representing teachers and school administrators. In fact, the commitment to site-based management is incorporated in the last contract negotiated with these unions in 1993.
But so far, only two schools are experimenting with the concept, the E. Benjamin Oliver and Edith Williams elementary schools.
Emily Carter, Oliver school principal, shared that school's early experiment with a limited $30,000 budget under its control. "I think we are just in the beginning, planning stages," she said, "and are no where near we can reach the fullest potential."
Carter said she was pleased, however, that the groundwork for such management tools has already been laid by the pilot project at Oliver.
The president of the local Educational Administrators Association, Carver Farrow, endorsed site-based management as a means of getting more education resources directly to students and believes the concept needs to be expanded to place more budgetary and decision-making authority in the hands of school-based teams. Farrow said the town hall meetings can become the forum by which educational reform can be used.
"The town meeting is a very good vehicle to discuss educational issues because all persons in the community can offer opinions and dialogue in a politically free environment," Farrow said.
Businessman Neal Weiss proposed a more comprehensive approach, which is being incorporated into a proposal being developed. It would require the government to make money available for education by trimming the government payroll by 45 employees each month for a year. Assuming that mid-level management employees would constitute the bulk of the dismissals, they would be absorbed by the private sector, which Weiss believes could use their skills.
The incentive for the private sector would be a $2,500 tax credit for each government employee hired. The Weiss proposal would be worded to include employees of the government's semi-autonomous agencies, including the West Indian Co., Ltd.
Any savings they realize by reducing payroll would be added to their annual payments to the government in lieu of taxes, with the money designated for specific educational purposes.
