Major changes are in store for Bermuda's National PTA as president Mr. Ross Smith and most other members of the executive will be stepping down in October.

Mr. Smith said on Sunday that at least four of the five members of the National PTA executive, including him, will not be standing for re-election next month.

Vice president Mr. Daniel Robinson was the only executive member who Mr. Smith believed might be staying on.

Yesterday, Mr. Robinson said he too would likely be leaving. "I need to take a year or so off,'' said Mr. Robinson, who is president of Elliott PTA.

Asked who would take up the reins at the National PTA if all current executive members left, Mr. Robinson said: "At this stage, I don't know. There are other people in other PTAs who will probably be coming on board.'' Mr. Smith told The Royal Gazette members of the executive were stepping down for a variety of reasons. The major turnover in the executive was "a coincidence'', he said.

Mr. Smith, who has been president for one year, said he would no longer be eligible to sit on the executive because he would not have a child in the public school system.

"I regret to say that I took him out of the school system to finish off secondary school elsewhere,'' Mr. Smith said.

His son would finish his last year of secondary school in the United States, where Mr. Smith's sister-in-law lives. The switch, which was at his son's request, matched an opportunity with the youth's immediate needs and did not represent a lack of faith in Bermuda's public system, Mr. Smith said.

"But it doesn't preclude the fact that I'm still very much concerned that what is being promised (in terms of school reforms) is not being delivered in a comprehensive, inclusive way but is being done more or less piecemeal over too long a period of time.'' Some executive members were stepping down because their children were graduating to Bermuda College, and some for other reasons, Mr. Smith said.

Continuity should not be a problem, because "the executive takes its instructions from the membership.'' Because of the many changes in the make-up of the executive, a meeting will not be sought with new Education and Human Affairs Minister the Hon. Jerome Dill until after next month's elections, Mr. Smith said.

He said he hoped Mr. Dill would do more than his predecessor, Dr. Clarence Terceira, about implementing recommendations of the PTAs, the Education Planning Team, school principals, and the Bermuda Union of Teachers.

A teaching aide in each school and a school drug plan -- both recommended in 1989 but not yet in place -- were two examples, he said.

"We've had a lot of talk, a lot of promises, and in a lot of cases, very little action,'' he said.

Another priority of the National PTA for this school season would be receiving assurances about the resources required to develop the senior secondary school and reform the system.

The PTA wanted "a moral, financial, no-holds-barred commitment by the existing Government to revamp the education system so it benefits all of our children and that funds that are allocated are allocated in areas that are going to directly benefit the children''.

"It appears that most of the funds that are being allocated are put down Point Finger Road (where Ministry headquarters is located), rather than at the various schools.'' Other concerns included reports of a higher failure rate for the Bermuda Secondary School Certificate exam and a lack of information among parents and students about entrance requirements at Bermuda College.

Mr. Smith said he was unhappy that Mr. Dill would have to handle both Education and Human Affairs, especially while the restructuring was under way.

He felt that Dr. Terceira reinforced the common notion that the Ministry of Education only went through the motion of consulting with parents and teachers, then went ahead with its original plan.