The past president of Dellwood PTA has broken ranks with the present executive over the proposed move of the primary school to Northlands Secondary School.

Mr. Joshua Richardson said the Ministry of Education has now agreed to all changes at Northlands that the PTA demanded after a 1993 site visit.

Unless an April 26, 1993 letter that outlined those demands was later withdrawn, "we're making fools of ourselves'' by continuing to oppose the move, Mr. Richardson said.

But Mrs. Amatullah Bashir, the present Dellwood PTA president, said: "Nowhere in anyone's mind, except maybe Mr. Richardson's, was there supposed to be agreement to going to Northlands.

"Maybe he, himself, as the PTA president, had accepted totally the department's stand that Northlands would be an elementary school,'' Mrs.

Bashir said. "But to say that the executive and the parent body agreed -- if that was true, why in the world would we be making this amount of noise?'' As part of Government's education reform plan, it wants to make spacious Dellwood Primary School one of five new middle schools while converting Northlands Secondary School to a primary school.

Parents' opposition to the move, which has been simmering for some time, is soon expected to climax in a march on the House of Assembly and other protests.

On January 19, Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira announced that Government would stick to its guns on the school switch. But he said an underpass to help the primary children cross Berkeley Road safely to reach the playground would be among nearly $1 million in improvements at Northlands to meet parents' concerns.

Mr. Richardson, who stepped down as PTA president about one year ago and is no longer a member of the executive, said Government has now agreed to all the demands outlined in the April, 1993 letter signed by Mrs. Vivlyn Cooper, who was then the school principal.

The letter followed an April 7, 1993 visit to Northlands by Mrs. Cooper, some of the teachers, and members of the PTA executive, he said. The PTA executive made observations, reported back to the parent body, and came up with recommendations which Mr. Richardson said he planned to send directly to then Education Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons. But Mrs. Cooper told him correspondence between the PTA and Minister had to go through her.

"Everything that Dr. Terceira announced (on January 19), it was all on that list of recommendations that was sent off to the Ministry with the blessing of the PTA at that time,'' Mr. Richardson said.

The PTA could change its mind, but was acting in "bad faith'' if it did not write the Ministry and say so, he said.