While doing her ‘delicate little dance’ with SALCC board did Rigobert step on the wrong toes?

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was Monday morning when Cabinet sat down with the Board of Directors from Sir Arthur Lewis Community College for an “emergency meeting” regarding a 100 per cent fee increase for the 2018 school year. Government officials said the meeting was to discuss the future of the college, and to ensure that they are advancing programmes, staff and facilities to justify potential future tuition spikes.

The meeting seemed to be a success: government effectively cancelled the proposed fee increase. Yet, the following morning the board resigned en masse, despite the “meeting of minds” that supposedly confirmed a mutual understanding between both parties of stakeholders.

“I think that we all left the meeting with the mindset that we were heading in the right direction,” said the prime minister’s senior communications officer Nicole Mc Donald. She admitted that while the board’s resignation was cause for concern, “We just want to move forward.”

Additionally: “Our main priority is to ensure that the community college is meeting the needs of the people and the students. That is our main concern, no matter what board is in place”—by which she meant interim or permanent.

There have been questions surrounding the Ministry of Education’s role in the fee increases. Opposition leader Philip J. Pierre has said that while the government may have created the impression the tuition increase took them by surprise, that is not the truth.

According to Mc Donald, the Ministry of Education was aware that the board of SALCC wanted to institute a 100 per cent increase but did not approve or respond to the proposal. Other sources went further, saying in effect that the board’s correspondence on the matter, its complaints and suggestions, have been known to the education ministry for years but were largely ignored.

Just over a week ago, on Monday, July 30 (one day before the SALCC released its official statement), deputy permanent secretary Michelle Charles said: “It is my understanding that there will be a fee increase starting September. As it relates to matters on, well, increasing fees, the ministry . . . the ministry in no way . . . we don’t influence that decision at all.”

But the ministry does influence the decision. It took one meeting for the Cabinet to dismantle SALCC’s fee increase decision, and that was after the college had already gone public with it. And in terms of a direct influence, well, the college is bound to its legislature.

The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College Act states that with the approval of the minister, the board is permitted to make rules regarding the “transaction of its business . . . prescribing the manner in which documents, cheques . . . shall be signed” and “prescribing the due custody of monies forming part of the funds and resources of the board.” In short, the board cannot legally move without the minister’s stated approval. So did the board act on its own, without the minister’s input? The board could not be reached for comment, unlike the leader of the House Opposition.

“I know, and I am certainly sure, that the Sir Arthur Lewis board would never go public with such a declaration if they did not consult with the Minister of Education. Never!” said Philip J. Pierre at a press conference on Tuesday.

Meanwhile well-placed sources tell the STAR the minister had been sitting on this potential volcano for about a year. The feeling of many who talked with this reporter is that when it came time for Minister Rigobert to account, she chose to throw her board under the bus, leaving them little choice but to throw in the towel.

Rigobert made a general comment on the matter on Wednesday morning: “From my reading of the situation, I am even more convinced that all the stakeholders involved with respect to [SALCC] want what is best for the college. There may be contending views on how to achieve [what’s best for the college] but I’m even more convinced now than ever before that all parties concerned really want what is best for [SALCC].”

When Rigobert was asked about whether or not the ministry knew about the 100 per cent increase before the board’s announcement, she did not give a straight answer. “My politics is a people-centred politics. I’m concerned about households and how they are affected by decisions, and we’ve had a very delicate dance over the last couple years.”

Rigobert ignored the STAR’s request for further comment.