The former chairman of the CedarBridge Academy Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) this week called on the community and the Government to provide support to alternative education systems, like the Adult Education School.

But he also called on the CedarBridge Academy community to support the interim PTSA executive led by Eugene Woods.

?Let?s support AES, let?s support alternative systems. That?s the bottom line,? said Robin Richardson.

?I say support AES and every other system that is going to bolster the standards of this country. Because those same children are the ones who are going to take care of us when we are sitting in our rocking chairs. We?re talking about future government leaders here.?

Mr. Richardson, who led a mass resignation of the PTSA executive last week, has taken his 16-year-old daughter out of CedarBridge and enrolled her at the AES because she was having social problems there which were affecting her grades.

?We know even as adults if you?re not getting along socially with your (work colleagues) it?s going to affect your work,? he said.

?So I just got fed up with that and I was looking for a place where she was going to get more one on one supervision.?

He explained that the size of the school made social interaction and resolving conflicts difficult for some students.

And he raved about the intimacy of the AES.

?When I took my daughter there last week, we had a one-on-one. She (director Julia Beach) was very professional.

We had a meeting with my wife and Lisa, and the next day Lisa had to go and sit a mock GED exam and she passed with flying colours. So Lisa is on a fast track where she is going to take her GED in May and could be in college by September.?

He defended the alternative school against Government?s charge that students who go there see it as an easier option compared to the rigours of a superior public education system. He said Government?s stance was unhelpful and elitist.

?For people to say AES is substandard... really it?s more intense because you can go on a fast track to get your GED.?

Mr. Richardson said that he was ?shocked? at the procedure it took to take his daughter out of CedarBridge Academy.

?It took me two minutes literally,? he said. ?You would think if I walked into your office and I said ?listen I?m taking my daughter out of your school?, wouldn?t you want to at least find out what happened? Where she?s going? She had been there three years.?

While the public school system had excellent teachers, he said, both Berkeley and CedarBridge Academy had lost the ?personal touch? because of their size and a ?slaughterhouse mentality? was taking over.

?I don?t want to bring down CedarBridge. I feel that the best way to move forward is to support the interim PTSA executive because CedarBridge is a very important link in the chain as is every other school on the Island.?

He said he had given up his position as head of the PTSA reluctantly because ?I had a passion for it. My heart is in education.?

Lisa has found a renewed enthusiasm in her education, he said, when asked how his daughter took to the AES experience.

?When you can send your child out the door smiling, that?s got to be worth a million.?