Sunday, May 17, 2009

Disillusionment, controversy, anger, concern, restiveness, shot through with a claim of the Excelsior High School Board’s “indifference” & “highhandedness” has resulted in a vote over the weekend by the alumni chapters in New York and Florida to suspend all disbursement of funds to the school, including prior pledges, with immediate effect.

The move follows years of simmering discontent with the way the groups have been treated by the Board, according to Paulette Mullings Bradnock(l.)andCorneld Lindo presidents, respectively, of the New York & Florida chapters of the Excelsior Alumni Association.

"We need  transparency and accountability from the Board"  insists  Paulette Mullings Bradnock,  President of the New York based  Excelsior Alumni Association (USA) Inc.

Matters came to a head with the swirling controversy over the way the process to appoint the new principal was allegedly manipulated to install a favored candidate who was not necessarily the best qualified, they complain.

According to a report on a current affairs program on Nationwide Radio, aired Monday May 4, 2009, objective Ministry of Education protocol was abandoned in order to name a preferred candidate who had actually finished fifth in the initial vetting process.

Calls for answers to these contentious allegations, and a request for transparency and dialogue, with a requested deadline of May 15, 2009, by the overseas based alumni chapters have so far gone unanswered by the Board.

The Board’s action, the groups claim, continues a pattern of the Chapters being treated with contempt, taken for granted and rarely consulted on matters affecting the school. Long term gripes include the widespread perception among members that the groups are usually held at arm’s length and treated as virtual outsiders by the school and Board, except when they are approached for funding.

With a variation of the No Taxation, Without Representation refrain of the American Revolution-era Boston Tea Party ringing throughout the alumni community, feelings have hardened and distrust has come to frame the relationship with the Board, they say.

“It will not be business as usual,” said Althea Brown Robinson, Vice President of the Excelsior Alumni Association of Florida. “We have a stake in Excelsior like anybody else. This is our alma mater too. Our President, Corneld Lindo, even has a daughter attending the school as well, so we will not be silenced or ignored.”

Moreover, the groups say that are rarely given full credit for their contribution. In fact, they complain that they are often elbowed out of the frame and a distorted picture painted of the contribution of various entities.

Now with the controversy, too difficult to ignore, has come a call to re-define the function of the groups with members questioning the roles, if any, of the Alumni Chapters in the Diaspora.

Members have called for a formal voice in the affairs of the school that is commensurate with the unremitting service rendered by the groups over the years.

Both groups and their members have an unmatched record of support for Excelsior and have given hundreds of thousands dollars to underwrite various projects at the school throughout the years.