Parents of students attending St George’s College yesterday forcefully rejected the appointment of a female principal, arguing that her gender and lack of experience in that position would prevent her from doing a good job.

“I don’t want a woman principal here,” said one very distraught female parent at an emergency parent/teachers meeting at the Roman Catholic school on North Street in downtown Kingston yesterday afternoon. “This will be the only boy school with a woman principal.”

Another woman parent who spoke at the meeting said: “I personally don’t want to have a female principal here because we already have two female vice-principals and most of our heads of departments are female. We need to have a male influence for our boys.”

News of the new principal’s appointment started creating a stir at the school last week, as parents opposed to the selection sought to solicit support from other parents.

The parents, the Observer learnt, grew concerned after hearing that teachers at the school were opposed to the selection and had met among themselves to discuss the issue.

Yesterday, outgoing principal Dr Fred Kennedy tried to allay the fears of the parents, explaining that the candidate received the highest score of the six persons interviewed for the position.

According to Kennedy, the school board followed the necessary procedure by advertising the position internally before opening it up to the wider public.

He said the interviewing committee included the board chairman, four members of the board, along with an education officer from the Ministry of Education.

“At a board meeting, they voted on the person they thought was more suitable, and there was a unanimous decision on the part of the board,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy told the parents that he was unable to disclose any information about the candidate, including her name, as the appointment process was not yet completed. The information, he said, has been sent to the Roman Catholic Archbishop, who will sign and send the candidate’s information to the Ministry of Education for a final sanction.

If all that goes well, the new principal would commence her duties by the first week in July, he said.

Although Kennedy did not name the candidate, it was obvious that some parents knew her identity.

After the meeting, one parent told the Observer that one of the reasons for the general dissatisfaction is that the candidate is the daughter of a former principal of the school, whose management style had been questioned by the staff.

According to the source, the candidate’s experience goes only as far as heading up the Mathematics Department at a prominent high school in Kingston.

St George’s College was founded in 1850 by Jesuits and, until last year September when girls were admitted to its sixth form, was totally populated by male students.

This will be the second principal appointed in the last two years, following Lloyd Fearon’s resignation in 2004, shortly after the school received a grade ‘F’ in the controversial study of the 2003 CXC results by Dr Dennis Minott, a member of the Government-commissioned Task Force on Education.

Yesterday, Dr Kennedy pleaded with the parents to support the new principal, arguing that if they don’t she would fail.

“If the person does not have certain qualities or experience or whatever, then you need to stand around that person to make it happen,” he said, adding that somebody may not be as efficient as somebody else but if they have a moral set of values that is the most important thing.

Dr Kennedy had almost convinced the parents of the need to support the new principal until the teachers, at the request of the parents, declined to say how they really felt about the new principal.

After much prompting the dean, who happens to be leaving for further studies in Canada, and another teacher, who is also leaving for studies abroad, gave responses that did not help to allay the parents’ fears.

Both said that they had objected to the new appointment, but reluctantly admitted that they would be prepared to work with whoever was in place.

But the parents, noting that both teachers would not be at the school in the new term, were adamant that they needed to hear from a teacher who would be remaining at the school during the new principal’s tenure.

After much prompting from Dr Kennedy, another teacher reluctantly came forward and told the parents that she, like others, had voiced her objection to the new principal, but was prepared to work with whoever was appointed.

“The fact that I have chosen to remain here is an endorsement of my commitment to make my contribution to this school,” she said.

This, however, did not help, as the parents said they were still not satisfied with the decision.

“When you first started talking you gave the impression that all was well and I thought so, but after seeing the reaction of the teachers I am not feeling very comfortable,” another female parent told Dr Kennedy.

Dr Kennedy admitted that recently during his absence abroad, information had been leaked about the new candidate. He said he had heard that the teachers met among themselves to voice their objection.

“I wouldn’t say that everyone is pleased with the choice but we all have to be prepared to work with whoever is in place,” Dr Kennedy said.

He said that he personally gave his vote of confidence when the board members met, and asked parents to believe in his choice.

Although Dr Kennedy had said that he was not privileged to divulge information about the candidate, he made it clear that she has had experience as a business manager before she came into the teaching profession.