Hopwood woes still unresolved

The mediation board of the Public School System has failed to resolve the controversy hounding the island’s lone government-run junior high school during a meeting earlier this week with the complaining teachers and Principal Lourdes Mendiola.

The failure by the mediation board to address the unrest among Hopwood Junior High School teachers and administration officials forces the need for Board of Education members to convene to discuss ways to settle the dispute.

During the meeting, Ms. Mendiola merely noted that her office is open for discussion with the protesting teachers as the petitioners read their letter of protest, urging the school principal’s ouster from Hopwood Junior High School.

Education officials are obligated to act on the teacher-petitioners’ complaints against Ms. Mendiola since the dispute is threatening to disrupt classes at the government-run junior high school.

Hopwood Junior High School has been the subject of widespread public criticism due to alleged prevailing problems involving discipline, drug, alcohol and tobacco use, teen-aged pregnancy and violence.

When asked to comment on threats by the complaining teachers to take their case to the court, Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Inos yesterday tossed the issue to the PSS legal counsel.

Hopwood Junior High School tutors and non-teaching staff, who recently signed a petition paper to oust Principal Lourdes Mendiola, have circulated a white paper denouncing alleged libelous statements issued against them by and threaten to sue Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos.

The teachers alleged that Dr. Inos has taken biased positions in favor of Ms. Mendiola which, they claimed, were evident in the public statements issued by the education commissioner slandering them.

According to the protesting Hopwood teachers, Dr. Inos never talked to them and has “contaminated the process by making her personal opinion well known to her subordinates at the Central Office.”

“The COE has shown no support for teachers and children by leaving the school in such a hostile atmosphere for over a week before she took real action on the situation,” they added.

The teachers also said they have been branded trouble-makers by the education commissioner for the only reason that they banded together to thwart Ms. Mendiola from her post as Hopwood principal.

Members of the education board and the PSS legal counsel are expected to meet early next week to discuss possible means that may help resolve the pressing issues surrounding Hopwood Junior High School.

It was not immediately clear whether part of the discussion include possible personnel movement within the embattled educational institution.

The petitioners claimed Ms. Mendiola has not made any attempts to reconcile any indifference or misunderstandings with teachers who signed the petition against her.
The teachers are asking for the removal of Ms. Mendiola as the school’s principal, citing deficiencies in her ability to properly manage the institution.

“We are more than confident that our combined hundreds of years of education and experience in education certifies and qualifies us to distinguish between good and bad leadership at the principal’s level,” they said.