Mary Redman should be driving through the gates of The Lodge School tomorrow.
Reliable sources have informed the Sunday Sun that the embattled president of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) has succeeded in her bid to have her retirement delayed. It should have started on January 1.
Redman was on pre-retirement leave from the end of the last school year, but in a letter dated November 24, 2017, she reportedly advised Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, June Chandler, that she would no longer be proceeding into retirement as previously indicated.
That letter was leaked and circulated on social media, and it prompted a response in other sections of the Press, where Redman cried foul of the officials for releasing her personal information.
The development with Redman’s change of heart about her retirement came weeks after news broke that she had tendered her letter of resignation as BSTU president and then sent another letter shortly afterwards recalling it.
Yesterday a source, who did not want to be named, indicated that Chandler had granted Redman’s request and she would be headed back to the St John school, where she has spent most of her 38 years in the teaching service.
Efforts to reach principal Winston Dowridge and Redman to verify whether she was in fact rejoining the staff at Lodge proved futile yesterday.
The curriculum at the school was tweaked during Redman’s leave, and the replacement teacher was teaching tourism, which was introduced at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency level. Redman teaches geography, and at the time of her leave did not teach CAPE. (YB)
