JEDDAH, 17 November 2002 — The International Philippine School in Jeddah (PSJ) turned a new leaf yesterday with the formation of a new school board in place of the disbanded Board of Trustees (BOT).

Two committees were also set up — one for administrative matters and the other for financial management, according to an announcement made by Philippine Consul General Kadatuan Usop.

Citing instructions from a three-agency committee in Manila, Usop took charge as chairman of the school management over the weekend amid a worsening power struggle between the BOT recognized by the Saudi Ministry of Education and a group of parents that seized the school campus.

Usop, who presided over a flag-raising ceremony at the school yesterday morning, said the committee on administration would also review the staffing patterns and rationalize recruitment procedures for teaching and administrative staff.

“The school’s academic standards had become poor and so there is an urgent need to raise the standard of faculty,” Usop told Arab News.

The committee on financial matters, he said, would determine the financial status of the institution and restore its solvency. “The committee will also probe into the financial transactions and dealings that were done in the past three years. Its studies will include where the school went wrong in financial matters,” he said.

He also announced that the school had engaged the services of Al-Sindi & Batterjee auditing firm effective yesterday. “The firm will also suggest measures to improve the school’s finances,” he added.

Usop clarified again that the Consulate’s taking charge is temporary.

“My position in the school would remain for a short time, maybe for a few weeks or a month, until further orders from the three ministerial agency that regulates overseas Filipino schools. It will be my endeavor to hold an early assembly of parents in preparation for constituting an elected school board.

“The election will be supervised by a representative of the three ministerial agency from Manila, the local community and of course by the Saudi Ministry of Education. By the way, the MOE supervises the school and does not directly control it,” he said.

Also yesterday, a third group of parents that emerged at the height of the conflict, reaffirmed its support for the Consulate’ move to reform the school.

The group called the Third Force asked Usop, however, to go through the committee membership and include parents who have long worked for reforms in the school.

“We believe the consul general can come up with a better composition of the committees if he himself does the scouting for talents and not rely solely or largely on the recommendation of the Hernandez group,” said the group through their spokesman, Nilo Lucena.

He said the group will submit a position paper in support of the consul general’s pronouncements on reforms, including academic, financial and management, and the holding of an election for a new school board.

“We have made our stand very clear from the start that while we wanted the overstaying BOT of Efren Rodriguez to step down, we also do not favor an unelected group to take over,” said Lucena. “That’s why welcomed the consul general’s taking charge after he made clear his objectives.”

The Third Force is led by several presidents of the Parent-Teachers Groups or PTGs, which comprised the Parent-Teachers Council (PTC) then chaired by Fidel Hernandez.

On Oct. 11, the PTC tried to hold a parents general assembly inside the school to discuss the excesses of the Rodriguez BOT, including the alleged financial anomalies, nepotism, and mismanagement.

The assembly was aborted when police came and told the parents to disperse. Before dispersing, some parents moved that the Rodriguez BOT be abolished and nominated Hernandez as the new chairman.

Hernandez’s PTC was split thereafter, with those who formed the Third Force saying their intention was to push for an election, not to seize power.

Hernandez’s group, however, insisted that they were elected by the parents and that they had to force the takeover because the Rodriguez BOT had no intention of stepping down voluntarily despite their having overstayed their term.