Operations normal at JC

JAMAICA COLLEGE (JC) school board chairman Lance Hylton and acting headmaster Wayne Robinson say operations at the school remain normal, following Thursday's protest, and seeming discontent by some of the institution's old boys.

No more than nine placard-bearing old boys held a silent protest at the entrance to the Old Hope Road institution on Thursday morning.

The protests targeted the removal of the current school board, and for Robinson to be appointed principal of the school. Robinson is the institution's acting principal.

Protesters cited that the most important stakeholders, the 230-odd-year-old institution's present day students, are affected by the public discourse which includes lawsuits before the court and the airing of JC's 'dirty laundry' (negative happenings at the school) in the media.

The lawsuit relates to arguments that permission was not granted by the board, and whether school funds are being used to fund any legal affairs, pertaining to the said lawsuit.

“One of the questions raised is that it didn’t get the permission of the board. That is absolutely not true. The board has granted permission for all the steps we have taken,” Robinson said.

Both himself and Hylton said the matter, which was the subject of the most recent board meeting on Wednesday night, was reiterated, unanimously, and that needs to be clear, that there is no issue.

“Think about this, why would every member of the board feel they should sue and oppose Basil Jarrett. What personal vendetta would there be? Isn’t it more likely there is some good reason why this has happened?” Hylton said.

Robinson is one of the claimants in the lawsuit and alleged on Thursday that Jarrett, in his affidavit, says they (JCOBA) are independent and autonomous of JC.

“Meaning they can collect money, which they have done on behalf of the school and they decide what they want to do with that money,” Robinson said, adding that these monies are what donors are giving to the school.

He told reporters that Jarrett, who resigned in 2022 as president of JCOBA, presented a set of accounts in a meeting which he would like to be formally shared to the school because it is accountable to JC.

“I saw it. On it, two pages show 20-odd million dollars that they have allocated to admin fees, commissions and allocated to salaries. The office is here, there is no admin fees, they don’t pay rent, they don’t pay light bills, water, security. What are these admin fees that come to over $20 million,” Robinson asked.

He says there is an employee salary of $100,000 and the school pays half.

Robinson said that he is calling on the Ministry of Education too.

“They should say something about old boys and old past students' association collecting monies on behalf of the school and they are autonomous and independent,” Robinson said.

Hylton said the consequence of not pursuing it will lead to anybody coming forward to say they are collecting monies on behalf of an institution and just keep it.

“To date he has not handed over the bank account for the JCOBA… Just to be clear, there is no disruption to the school, there is no turmoil, the school is fine. We are rolling along,” Hylton said, adding that they can never ever stop someone putting bad headlines in the press.

He, however, accepts that it looks bad, but insists they are not in control of what anyone calls the press and puts out there.

“There are five or six of them at the gate. Where are the hundreds of disgruntled old boys. The JCOBA has said we are not a part of this… The school has not paid a dollar towards any lawsuit,” Hylton said.

According to the board chair, he got word overnight that there would be a protest at the school gate.

He alleged that the old boys who protested were simply supporting the defendant in the lawsuit.

One of the protesters, Peter Blake, during interviews with the media on Thursday, made no mention of Jarrett and neither was Jarrett present.

Blake said, “Recently I heard Mr Hylton beat his chest to say we moved (in the ranking/survey) from 30-nuff to 20, that is nothing to beat your chest with. We should never have been 30-nuff, where we have been for so many years.”

He is seemingly backing Robinson to be permanently installed as principal.

“Personally, I think if Mr Wayne Robinson was appointed permanently, and unshackled, then the school would step up,” Blake said.

He said JC has been able to recover after COVID better than a lot of schools. However, he cited as quantitative the school's improved position from "30-odd to 20".

“It is not a qualitative move. We need to be educating and graduating students in the 90 percentile when we put them forward for exams,” Blake said.

He believes what is preventing Robinson from being appointed headmaster was an outburst he made at the handover function regarding the Ashenheim Track and Field Complex.

This was done when former embarrassed Education Minister Ruel Reid, who was principal of JC, was seconded to the role of education minister and was doing the handover.

“Mr Reid in his capacity declared that the ministry had made a $20-million grant to JC through the facility. Wayne Robinson, our acting headmaster, spoke after and instead of avoiding that, he courageously said he will have to look for that because he hasn’t seen the $20 million,” Blake said, adding that for students looking on that was an example of the different signal being sent to the minds of the students.

He said as it turned out Reid got embattled in matters that are before the criminal court.

“It is better for us not to traumatise the students coming back on a new term… while we air our protest with the least amount of damage to the mind of the students,” said Blake, on why they chose to protest on Thursday.

Robinson was not seemingly flattered about the protest at the entrance to the school.

“I’m concerned that any group feels that it’s necessary to come to the gate to demonstrate about my appointment, because my appointment is not controlled by the school. We have done all that we're supposed to do. If you are going to demonstrate for my appointment, I think you should go to the Ministry of Education. We await the decision of the MOE and teachers services commission. The target should not be the gate of JC,” Robinson said.

Hylton said that the protest at the gate was intentional, to throw out the lawsuit, and less of wanting Mr Robinson appointed principal.

The question was put to Hylton why Robinson was not yet appointed.

“It’s in the minister’s purview. The best we know is that there was a protest made against Mr Robinson being appointed. They need to look into that. Some old boys wrote to the ministry on June 7, 2022 on behalf of something called JCOBA at the time. The person who was president was Mr Jarrett. It wasn’t signed, but you can add it up,” Hylton said.

He cites that there was a hold-up and said they were in the process of getting that cleared.

“They have done their investigation and and it has proven that there is nothing and Mr Robinson is fully qualified, but not only that, he has demonstrated through his time as acting principal the excellence of his work…,” Hylton said.

A month ago, the Supreme Court dismissed a claim brought against Jarrett by Robinson.

Robinson had sued Jarrett for an account of how proceeds from the sale of the school's uniforms, which were given to the association in a fundraising effort, were used under his leadership of the JCOBA, alleging dishonesty on the former army man’s part.

Justice Opal Smith rejected Robinson’s claim on the grounds that he had no standing to bring such a claim in his personal capacity as principal of the institution; and that Jarrett was not a proper party to the claim as at all times he was acting as president of the JCOBA.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com