A thorough review of the issues plaguing CedarBridge Academy will be conducted over the next four months by the new interim executive of the school?s Parent Teacher Student Association, chairperson Eugene Woods has promised.

Then, with a clear idea of what challenges the school faces and hopefully some potential solutions, Mr. Woods felt the bodies involved will be on far stronger ground when faced with PTSA general elections in September.

Mr. Woods, the coach/manager at the Government Tennis Stadium, spoke in the wake of last week?s emergency meeting of the PTSA. At that meeting the entire remaining executive voted themselves out of office, leaving a leadership vacuum which many were reluctant to fill.

Once Mr. Woods took the first steep plunge in offering his services as chairperson, however, the remaining seats on the executive were filled rapidly.

Mr. Woods admitted that, with his son only beginning at CedarBridge in January, he was ?totally unaware? of the challenges plaguing the PTSA.

In fact, the emergency meeting on Tuesday night was the first CedarBridge PTSA meeting he had ever attended.

?I was totally shocked by the chairman?s feeling of not getting sufficient support,? he said. ?Certainly from the outside I thought everything was very well-run, the various components seemed very cohesive.

?But it was quite apparent there were some issues that need to be resolved.

?There are 900 students there, and (former chairperson Robin Richardson) was not particularly happy with the number of parents who came out.

?I felt that, having sent my son abroad and being absolutely concerned about his education, coming back and seeing the state of things as outlined by the chairperson, someone had to step in... I made myself available on an interim basis.?

As an interim body, Mr. Woods said he and the executive planned to conduct a kind of review of the school in preparation for PTSA general elections in September. ?The number one priority of the new executive is to investigate and fully define what the issues are... and report back, hopefully with some of the solutions.?

That would give parents, students and teachers more information about what to expect and what their role will be before a more permanent executive is formed in September.

Mr. Woods, a founding member of the Progressive Labour Party and the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association who has been active in the Bermuda Industrial Union and has served on previous Government boards, admitted he himself was still not totally aware of the issues facing the school.

What he understood so far was that there are four different bodies which influence the running of the school: the Ministry of Education, the Board of Governors, the teaching faculty, and the PTSA.

Functions of the PTSA include: continuously evaluating the quality of education at the school, the overall direction and focus of the school, establishing a close relationship with teachers, fundraising, jointly assisting parents and teachers in maintaining high discipline standards, and maintaining close communication with parents, keeping them involved in both their children?s academic and social lives.

?We need an extremely strong PTSA because we?re dealing with some of the social behaviour problems at the school,? Mr. Woods said. ?It is unreasonable to expect the teachers, whose primary function is to educate, to deal with them by themselves. It is important for this executive to impress upon parents the importance of an active role in combating discipline problems.?

?Because our tenure as an interim executive is relatively short, our learning curve is going to have to be steep and the existing problems ? whatever they may be ? need to be vigourously attacked so that by June we will have an informed PTSA, and will certainly be in a position to make decisions as to the future of the organisation.

?This school has the most important things. It has a physical space. It has a teaching facility that is good, and a headmistress who certainly has proved herself.

?The fundamental structures are there. All we need to do is establish a good relationship with the four bodies so we can optimise the learning process at that institution.?