After reading the Daily Herald of October 12, 2011 with the headline entitled: "MPC Director resigns with immediate effect" ~will be working with SZV~, it has my deepest concern not only as a parents with a child attending MPC but also as a citizen demanding to know what really prompted this decision.
In this article it was mentioned that the resignation of the MPC director was fuelled by the fact that he had not been able to accomplish much in terms of improvements at the two schools. The Director, Mr. Wolff went on to say that his background and knowledge of banking would be an asset to his new position at SZV. My question to the school board and to Government is what next. Here we have a school director that did not even have the courtesy to give the school at least a one month’s notice to assist in the transition period of a new director because of his immediate resignation. In addition to that the school board and Government did not explain to parents and the people of St. Maarten how they are planning to deal with the improvements that the director was not able to accomplish. What were those improvements that were so difficult that the director was not able to achieve them. These questions should not go unanswered because when one of our former local directors were in that position she was forced to resigned because according to reports it was stated that she could not get the job done. We then gave the position as director of the MPC to a European Dutch who now emphatically states that he can not handle the position and therefore he has resigned. Above that he has now been rewarded with a position at the SZV as an investment officer. Didn’t the Government or the school board realize in the first place that someone with a banking background would not be able to run two large secondary schools with over 1600 students. All along while Mr. Wolff was the principal of the MPC and Sundial he was advising SZV on pensions for several months with written permission from the board. No wonder he could not assess the problems and create the proper plans to be able to make the necessary improvements because he was too busy elsewhere which caused him to neglect our children. Or maybe he has left our children and the school on their own because of greener pastures. All along the Government and the school board should have been aware that they were setting up the MPC for a failure by hiring someone as director without the proper background in education. My main concern however is not Mr. John Wolff but rather the students that have been left without a solution for the improvement of the schools. Anyone that runs away from solving a problem I would consider a failure which in this case goes for the MPC Director. As a parent I am demanding that the school board and the Government in particular the Minister of Education gives us an explanation of this situation so that we would know where our children stand. If these improvements are not solved what will be the affect on our students. What are the improvements that the director was not able to put into effect. Why did the MPC director resign immediately without proper notice. Who will now take over the directorship of the school. Who is currently the interim director of the schools. These questions we would like to have answered for the benefit of our students and their parents, who I believe deserves to know. In conclusion I would like to make it quite clear that no where in the world would any Government reward a principal of a school with any influential position after leaving the future of a country, which is it’s young people, in an uncertain and unsolved dilemma.
Jeffrey Richardson
Concerned citizen and parent