The Board of Governors at CedarBridge Academy is falling short on the school’s educational priorities, according to a group of longstanding staff who approached The Royal Gazette with their concerns.

The staff members — including parents and educators, who requested not to be named to protect themselves — complained of an “autocratic” style on the part of board chairman Jason Benevides.

Staff spoke of teachers’ frustrations over obtaining basic supplies, while unpopular decisions such as the introduction of paid parking — which was subsequently dropped — were imposed by the board.

“From what I see, there is a lot of bricks-and-mortar type stuff that the board does, but there seems to be very little support for educational programmes,” one said. The staff described a lack of textbooks, up-to-date equipment such as photocopiers and computers, professional development for teachers, and even paper.

The school is being treated like “a money-making venue — rent this, sell that”, the staff member said.

“It’s time for the board to be made up of former educators, not with businessmen and accountants running it.

“We have plenty of retired principals and ministry executives. Those are the kind of people that need to be on the board. We need a board that has the best interests of the school at heart.”

Teachers felt under appreciated, another said, while the creation of an accounts centre in the school has taken up extra rooms in an area used by teachers for personal issues with students.

“Mr Benevides has been, to my recollection, the first board member to ever get involved in the room situation — that has always been left to school administration,” the teacher said.

“We have never had any interference. With this, you have a non-academic person now privy to very confidential dealings going on with students and family. There is no way to avoid it.”

The head of the board of governors took flak from the group for neglecting to attend special occasions at the school, such as graduation.

“He came to one staff meeting and that’s it. We don’t know his stance or vision for the school. We feel he wants to run things like his boardroom.”

The group, which contained members of staff from different departments of the school, including senior staff, admitted that they had not spoken directly with Mr Benevides about their concerns.

However, they maintained that they had not done so because they felt uncomfortable with the climate of administration at the school.

“First and foremost, school boards look out for students,” one said.

“Education is not a line item on the school board’s agenda. It is the only item.” They said they did not believe the board was sufficiently accessible or accountable.

The roles and requirements for boards at aided and maintained schools are laid out in section 19 of the Education Act 1996.

The most recently gazetted board list confirms Mr Benevides’s role as chairman. Along with principal Kalmar Richards as an ex officio member, ten others sit on the CedarBridge board: Jyotih Bhajan-Darrell, Sahima Choudhury, Jane Correia, Kirstie Outerbridge, Nandi Outerbridge, Peter Sanderson, Leonard Santucci, Andrew Simons, Tim Smith and Dawnelle Walker.

The Royal Gazette approached Mr Benevides to explain the concerns expressed. The chairman said it might be difficult to respond to anonymous complaints, and no response had been received by press time last night.

Asked if the Ministry of Education had heard from CedarBridge staff over a lack of teaching supplies, a spokeswoman responded that the ministry had not received “any formal complaints from staff members at the CedarBridge Academy regarding the governance of the school”.