With about a month to go before the end of the school year, the teachers of Western Christian Academy and Ontario Christian School, both located in Ontario Village, Cayo District, have been out of class all of last week, except for Tuesday, over disagreements with the school management.
Western Christian Academy is a private school run by the Belize Faith Mission. Ontario Christian has the same management, but is assisted by Government.
President of the Belize National Teachers Union (BNTU), Jaime Panti, told us last week Monday that the Union was privy to discussions held last week between Ontario Christian’s management and the teachers (the school has recently changed management).
Panti told us that according to the Ministry of Education, the new school management is unable to find the finances necessary to pay salary and has appealed to the Government for relief. The pay dispute has since been settled.
However, sister school Western Christian Academy, which serves the Cayo District from Belmopan to Benque Viejo, is in deeper trouble after its principal was dismissed on May 29 and its manager, American Eudora Milhollon Guerra, announced plans to shutter the school for lack of funds.
Our attempts to reach officials at the Ministry of Education in Belize City concerning the matter last week were unsuccessful, but Western Christian teacher Marlon Robinson visited Amandala on Thursday afternoon to give the teachers’ side of the story.
According to Robinson, Dana Wutke, an American volunteer who has served as principal for the entire existence of the school up to her dismissal almost two weeks ago, was simply let go, supposedly for “insubordination.” Sources tell Amandala Wutke was “digging around” into the school’s financial position, questioning whether Guerra, daughter of the Mission’s founders, owned the land on which the school is situated.
At the same time, students were delivered letters informing them that the school was closing “for lack of funds” on June 19. Robinson told us that Western Christian’s application for Government funds to the Ministry of Education was on track until the dismissal of Pastor Eugene Tate, the previous school manager, earlier this year. Pastor Tate has served in the Ontario area for more than two decades and as manager of the school until his dismissal. Tate reportedly told Robinson he wanted to start schools similar to Western Christian across the country, beginning in the South, and trademarked the name-formation; however, the Ministry license for the school lists its name as Ontario Christian High School. No one has been able to explain this apparent error.
Wutke informed parents at a Parent-Teacher Association meeting in Belmopan (which Robinson says he did not attend due to prior commitments) of her dismissal, and allegedly warned parents not to send their children to school on June 1, Monday, in protest. The school has 138 students in five forms (Prep through 4th form).
Robinson says that Guerra, on June 1, requested that he be acting principal, which is when he learnt of Wutke’s dismissal. The vice-principal, Nazlie Banner, according to Eudora Guerra, turned down her offer to be Wutke’s replacement.
Robinson initially accepted the offer, but after talking with his staff members, changed his mind and told Guerra that he and the staff would only work under Wutke. Guerra refused, claiming that Wutke was trying to “take away” the school from her. On Monday, students and parents gathered at the school grounds and protested recent events.
Wutke’s “insubordination”, Amandala has learnt, consisted of checking WCA’s status at the Ministry of Education and Natural Resources. Guerra maintains that the school lacks funds, despite numerous fundraising drives.
Tension escalated on Tuesday of last week, when Guerra and Wutke confronted each other on campus, and on Wednesday, when Wutke made a surprise speech to the student body during school chapel services, during which she announced that she was in the process of applying for a license to open a school of her own, Cayo Christian Academy, in Camalote village, and invited students to apply once she had settled matters.
On Wednesday, teachers had voted for an indefinite strike, but after assurances from the Ministry of Education that the matter would be tended to after June 19, the 11-member staff agreed to go back into the classroom.
The first – and potentially last – graduating class of Western Christian Academy will “march up” for their diplomas on June 20. Students in lower forms have begun asking for transfers to other schools.
But Robinson says he and his fellows, led by acting principal Leonardo Perez, will soldier on, and hope for the best – particularly, a miraculous Wutke return.