Revamped Board of Education named
Flagstone Re boss Mark Byrne has been appointed chairman of a newly revamped and permanent Board of Education.
Belco President Vince Ingham is the new deputy chairman and other members include PLP MP Ashfield DeVent, businessman Darren Johnston and French Honorary Consul Riquette Bonne-Smith, as well as union representatives.
The last Board of Education was disbanded after being described in the Hopkins report on public schools as "ineffective".
It was replaced with an interim executive board led by Bank of Bermuda chief Philip Butterfield and tasked with implementing much-needed reform.
The new expanded Board of Education will take over the work of the interim board and will have more power than in its previous incarnation, as recommended in the Hopkins report.
A law passed last summer means the new board will be able to make recommendations to the Education Minister on the appointment of Ministry of Education appointments.
It will also have more say on the recruitment of principals, as well as budgetary matters, curriculum and educational policy. It will have to produce a monthly report on its activities.
Mr. Byrne, chairman of Flagstone Re, has four children and the three eldest are students at Warwick Academy. The family recently donated $600,000 towards a new building at the school.
Mr. Ingham is chairman of the governing body at Warwick, where his grandchildren study.
The new board features union representation from Association of School Principals President Lisa Smith, Bermuda Public Services Union representative Estlyn Harvey and Bermuda Union of Teachers President Keisha Douglas and vice President Reeshema Swan.
Calvin White, chairman of the Berkeley Institute board of governors, and former PLP MP George Scott, chairman of CedarBridge Academy's board of governors, have also been appointed.
The other members, representing various schools, are Eric Garth Rothwell, Travis Gilbert, Frank Amaral and Nelson Hunt.
Meanwhile, a register of licensed educators working in Bermuda's schools has finally been published — six years after it was promised.
Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) has welcomed the list, which principals and teachers pay $100 to appear on.
BUT general secretary Mike Charles said it was good that teachers now had their own professional regulatory body — Bermuda Educators' Council — bringing them into line with doctors, lawyers, nurses and architects.
"Everybody within the system, whether it's public or private, has to apply to the Educators' Council and show qualifications and certification and then the educators will issue a licence," he explained.
"Bermuda is catching up with other jurisdictions. This is something that should have happened a long time ago. It's something we approve of. The only thing I personally object to is we don't have this Educators' Council manned by teachers. All the other professions govern themselves."
