At their regular monthly meeting Friday, the V.I. Board of Education made plans for a joint public meeting with the Virgin Islands Board for Career and Technical Education to discuss how the two groups can synchronize their efforts better.
"There are so many important items for us to discuss, and time is limited," said Chairwoman Winona Hendricks. To narrow the field, she and Daniel McIntosh, her counterpart on the technical education board, narrowed the topics to three: divergent graduation requirements in technical education and in the standard curriculum; synchronizing the two bodies’ teacher certification processes; and the needs and dilemmas of special education students.
All the members of both boards will get a chance to speak and the public will get to weigh in as well, Hendricks said. The joint meeting will be 4 p.m., Nov. 13 in the Great Hall of the St. Croix Campus of the University of the Virgin Islands.
The Board of Education had scheduled a vote on approval of its 2010 budget, but several members wanted more time to discuss the particulars, so by unanimous consent they tabled the budget vote until the board’s next regular meeting.
St. Croix attorney Devin Carrington was welcomed aboard as newly contracted legal counsel. Carrington retired earlier this year from a post on the V.I. Casino Control Commission, his latest in a 31-year career with the government.
In public comments after the meeting’s business was concluded, St. Croix educator Mary Moorhead said she was concerned the board had previously described its scholarships as being awarded on a "first-come, first-served" basis, arguing this might deny equal opportunity to highly qualified applicants who were informed late in the process while giving an advantage to minimally qualified applicants who got in the door first.
"I assure you that once the deadline is passed, we will look at each and every application," Hendricks said.
Moorhead asked the board if it could post its decisions, reports and minutes on its website — something the UVI board recently voted to do. Hendricks said the decisions could be posted but she would have to consult with legal counsel before posting minutes and reports. Moorhead pressed Hendricks for a date when she could get an answer and Hendricks said she would have one by Tuesday.
The meeting was held by teleconference at both the St. Thomas and St. Croix board offices. Members present were Hendricks, Keith Richards, Cheryl Francis, Terrence T. Joseph, Debra Smith-Watlington and Janis Esannason, as well as board director Carol O’Bryan Hennerman. Absent were Arah Lockhart and Judy Gomez.
