A decision to start the application process for top posts in the new school system all over again could disrupt Government's restructuring plans.

Garry Madeiros, chairman of the board which will run Bermuda's first senior secondary school, sounded this warning last night.

Mr. Madeiros told The Royal Gazette the Cedarbridge Academy board was "deeply concerned'' that the selection process for deputy principals and department heads at the school would not start until February at the earliest.

He was responding to an agreement reached last week, between the Education Ministry and the Bermuda Union of Teachers, to scrap results from a controversial test taken by the applicants and other information.

The BUT -- along with Northlands Secondary deputy principal Randolph Benjamin who was one of 17 people who applied for three deputy principal posts at Cedarbridge -- have claimed that the standardised test was unfair and handled in an unethical manner.

The union also filed a grievance against top education officials, accusing them of breaching the Collective Bargaining Agreement and teachers' terms and conditions of employment.

Both parties were scheduled to go to arbitration last week. But a settlement was reached. And the parties agreed that the test and other information gathered by the Ministry from applicants would be scrapped and a consultation process would begin this week.

Both the Ministry and the BUT also promised to "use their best endeavours to conclude the consultation process by January 31, 1997.'' Calling the delay "outrageous'', Mr. Madeiros said: "We are finding ourselves in the position we are in fighting time in trying to ensure that every aspect that will need to be ready is available for (September) 1997.

This has slowed that process down immensely.

"To me it means no decision will be made until February. That puts us two months behind and I'm very upset.'' While noting that the board had no control over the matter, he said it was being affected just the same.

The posts affected were those of people who will be directly working with the principal, Mr. Madeiros also pointed out.

"So what's happening is the principal (Ernest Payette) is carrying a lot more responsibility than he should, responsibility which he would normally delegate,'' he said.

Cedarbridge was not the only school that would be affected by the delay, he added.

"This has curtailed the whole education process,'' Mr. Madeiros said. "It is not just Cedarbridge Academy. It is every deputy principal post and other top posts in the middle schools as well.

"It is outrageous because we as a community should want to ensure that we have the best people possible to fill in the position as deputy principals.

And an organisation and individual who professes to be supportive of the education process is not helping.'' Stressing that Cedarbridge's success was important to the restructuring process, Mr. Madeiros said: "Therefore, every tool that we can use to ensure that we have the best people, should be used. Testing was just one tool used in the selection process. So it is ludicrous to complain about it.

"In the private sector when you come to apply for a senior position, you have no idea what you will have to go through and what you will be asked. But for sure you will go through anything that that organisation wants you to go through to get that job.

"When you take the position he (Mr. Benjamin) has, he has short circuited the process. And to see what has been slowed down, I think is disconcerting and disappointing.'' Mr. Madeiros also pointed out that the "stages'' which Mr. Payette had to go through to obtain his current position "far outweighed'' anything that had been asked of those applying for deputy principal and other top posts.

"He went through three layers of interviews in his own country and three comprehensive processes here with the board, the Ministry and the Public Service Commission,'' he said about the veteran educator from Belleville, Ontario. "It's like comparing apples with oranges.'' Despite the delay, Mr. Madeiros said the board was continuing with a number of other tasks.

In addition to setting up committees to look at the school's finances, property, technical infrastructure, and communications strategy, the board will be meeting with public high school PTAs in January to share information and get feedback on a number of issues, including the school uniform which will bear the school colours of cranberry and cedarberry (blue).