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Ten days after the start of the new school year, a number of teaching posts at the Gustavia school group and the Mireille Choisy secondary school have still not been filled.
The start of the new school year on Saint-Barthélemy could have gone off without a hitch. Even if the usual little hiccups and last-minute adjustments are rarely avoidable. In fact, at the Saint-Joseph de Lorient and Sainte-Marie de Colombier schools, teaching teams and teachers alike were able to enter the classroom without any major difficulties tarnishing the resumption of classes. The same could not be said of the Gustavia school group. And, to a lesser extent, at the Collège Mireille Choisy.
On Friday August 29, the school principal and parents discovered that three teachers would be unavailable on the first day of school. This discovery immediately triggered concern and anger among the parents. Headmistress Agnès Combin set about resolving the problem as quickly as possible. As early as Monday September 1, she was able to interview candidates for the vacant positions, who were already resident in Saint-Barth. At the same time, the Vice-Rector, Harry Christophe, held talks with parents' representatives.
The meeting was somewhat tense, but ended with a reassurance from the education authority's representative in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy that teachers would be hired quickly. More than a week later, however, the two vacancies remain unfilled. For purely administrative reasons. Although the interviews with the applicants were conclusive, the contracts have still not been sent out and signed. It is therefore impossible for the future contract teachers to start work.
A visit from the rector
The situation is as irritating as it is worrying for the parents of schoolchildren without a teacher. Several of them have expressed their incomprehension at the inertia of the rectorate's services in the face of the emergency. In particular, they stressed the destabilizing and disruptive effect of such a situation on their children. Today, Thursday September 11, the rector of the Guadeloupe education authority, Gabriele Fioni, is in Saint-Barthélemy. He is scheduled to meet the school principal in the early afternoon. In the morning, he is scheduled to visit the Collège Mireille Choisy, where, despite some initial procrastination, the atmosphere is much less turbulent.
However, the new principal, David Desiage, has had a very dynamic start to his new position. This is due to the absence of an assistant principal (who has since been appointed and taken up his duties), a literature teacher (also since recruited), a history-geography teacher and a substitute Spanish teacher. The latter two positions are still in the process of being filled.
