Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

School board officials want the post of bursar at the high-school level to be upgraded and the salary packag to that of a vice-principal.

The school officials are insisting the salary upgrade is necessary in order for secondary schools to attract and maintain persons of a higher calibre in the critical area of financial administration.

"(This) is of concern to me ,because if you are managing a school with 1,500 to 1,700 students, you are managing a lot of money," Anton Thompson, board chairman at Holy Trinity High School and vice-chairman of the Campion College board, said at a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum. He disclosed that Holy Trinity High School has changed five or six bursars within the last five or six years.

Can't retain right people

"We can't retain the right people at the level of salaries that are being offered," Thompson stated.

In agreement with Mr. Thompson, R. Danny Williams, board chairman at Jamaica College, said the salaries for bursars were "absolutely ridiculous". He added: "Bursars have to be at a minimum of a vice-principal level, salary wise."

Donna Parchment, chairman of the Board of Hampton School in St. Elizabeth, highlighted the tremendous responsibilities of bursars.

"They (bursars) are all running budgets of $100 million or more per year," she pointed out. "There are not that many companies in Jamaica running hundred-million-dollar budgets."

She said that bursars also have to deal with other specialised administrative responsibilities which require persons qualified to address the problem. Ms. Parchment suggested a reconfiguration of the administrative structure at these schools.

The school board officials also raised concerns about the overall running of the schools, which they said required persons with strong management skills.

Resource deficit

According to Dr. Henley Morgan, board chairman at Trench Town High School, the education system suffered from not only a resource deficit but also leadership deficit, "leadership at the level of governance and leadership at the level of management," noted Dr. Morgan.

He said the Ministry of Education has embarked on addressing the management deficit at the level of principal, but noted that there was an even greater deficit at the school board level. This, he said, is especially evident outside of the Corporate Area.

"Once you get outside of the Corporate Area, you have one of the world's worst cases of inequity in education," said Dr. Morgan. "Even corporate entities don't want to go out there (in the rural area) - because you are not getting a return on the dollar in adopting a school."