JACSI moves to rein in school chairmen overstepping roles

Some school board chairmen are crossing the line from governance into the day-to-day management of schools, Jamaica Association of Chairmen for Secondary Institutions (JACSI) President Courtney Wynter has admitted, as the association moves to rein in the practice and strengthen board leadership.

School boards are statutory bodies appointed by the minister of education and act as the regulatory bridge between national education policies and daily school-level practices with a strict governance-focussed framework.

“Now, what is happening here, I think, is that when you look at the Education Regulations of 1980, it gives the chairman and the board extensive decision-making powers over a school. And so it also crosses that line in modern governance practices, where chairmen are also doing operational stuff. For example, in modern governance structures, chairmen are not responsible for signing [off on] leave, on payments and a lot of other stuff that the regulation provides for chairmen and boards to do,” Wynter told The Gleaner.

But he acknowledges that some boards are seemingly crossing over that operational line.

“So one of the reasons why we exist, which is JACSI, is to build that leadership and management capacity as far as chairman and boards and their responsibilities are concerned, so there’s that line that is not crossed between operations and governance.”

He said that any breakdown in the relationship between chairmen, boards, and the leadership of schools is on JACSI’s watchlist.

“And that is something that we are trying to fix as well. But I am not seeing many cases where boards are out there doing whatever they want. I think boards sometimes cross that line and we’re trying to pull them back over to where there are two roles, which are really governance and policy, and monitoring and evaluation,” he said.

There is also the oftentimes seemingly problematic political appointments of boards to some schools.

“What I have found is that even with that, you have very good persons – in terms of professionals, in terms of their knowledge and experience – that have been appointed to these government-type school boards. So there is some argument to be made that not all school boards are created equal; and again, that is the reason why we have established this organisation called JACSI, so that we can consistently be effective and efficient as school boards in Jamaica,” Wynter said.

Wynter, the chairman of the joint board of management of the Wolmer’s Group of Schools, was re-elected unopposed to serve a second term last month at JACSI’s annual general meeting, where 50 boards were represented.`

Other members of the newly elected central executive are First Vice-President Murphy Gregg (Munro College), Second Vice-President Edward Wallace (Cedric Titus High), Treasurer Sharon Brown (Glenmuir High), Assistant Treasurer LoQuessor Livingston Doctor (Spot Valley High), Secretary Dr Carol Blanchard (Pembroke Hall High), Assistant Secretary Genevor Gordon-Bailey (Steer Town High), Public Relations Officer (PRO) Jeremain Brown (Sydney Pagon STEM Academy), and Assistant PRO Rhys Campbell (Mavis Bank High).

Formed in 2023, JACSI has set a target of having 90 per cent of the 171 chairmen of secondary public schools registered with the association by October 2028.

karen.madden@gleanerjm.com