by AMANDA LYNCH-FOSTER

IT WILL BE BACK to the meeting room once more in the Alexandra School impasse.

Teachers under the aegis of the Barbados Secondary Teachers' Union (BSTU), will be meeting with the school's board of management to discuss their concerns with principal Jeff Broomes this week.

This was the outcome of a meeting at the Ministry of Education yesterday morning attended by Permanent Secretary Atheline Haynes, Chief Education Officer Wendy Griffith-Watson and BSTU president
Mary-Anne Redman.

Redman said the ministry instructed the board chairman to meet with the teachers' representatives by tomorrow morning at the latest.

"We will deal with the issue of the letter and many other pertinent and pressing issues. The members are very, very serious about having
these issues addressed and having them dealt with as soon as possible," said Redman.

Teachers are locked in a dispute with Broomes over a letter of reprimand he sent to over a dozen of them regarding verification of their attendance at Teachers' Professional Day activities held by the BSTU. It stated that as they had not provided verification of their attendance, they would be marked absent for the day.

However, Broomes told the MIDWEEK NATION last night: "There are absolutely no conditions under which the letter will be withdrawn. There will be no meeting with me – I do not know if the board will have meetings with them, but if the meeting is about withdrawing the letter, it is a waste
of time, because I stand firmly behind the letter," said Broomes.

He also said he had met with the Barbados Union of Teachers and the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools and "both have expressed their full support for my position".