A new administrator is set to take over operations at Salvation Army School for the Blind in St Andrew today, following a decision by Salvation Army International to transfer the previous official.

A new director of boarding is also expected to be appointed in the coming weeks, following the departure of the previous captain.

The shake-up was triggered by months of contention between the officials and Ministry of Education (MOE) staff which came to a head last October when the officials took the decision to close the dormitory facility at the school for the midterm break, leaving several students stranded.

Haitians Major Minel Pierre Fils and his wife Denise are to be officially introduced to staff at the institution this afternoon the Jamaica Observer has been reliably informed.

“It’s like a burden come off we and the children them,” a staff member, who requested anonymity, said of the latest development. “We’re just hoping these two different and the environment peaceful and the children them can stop stress.”

Restive MOE staff, at a meeting in November, called for the removal of the two officials, after filing a slew of complaints, including mistreatment, against the pair.

The meeting was held with more than 30 staff members, MOE officials and commissioner in charge of the Salvation Army Caribbean Territorial Headquarters, Devon Haughton, at the school which the Observer attended.

“They are acting as if all of us come together and say, ‘Yes, we want unnuh remove them’. We are having problems, Sir. So this can’t sweep underneath the rug because we are having serious problems,” an irate staff member told Haughton, capturing the tone of the hour-long meeting.

“Staff have been abused emotionally, physically and psychologically and something needs to be done. And for the organisation to run properly you have to have comfortable staff. We have stress a wi yard; when wi come here wi have stress. Wi have stress everyweh wi go, wi have stress. Wi want to be treated with respect and with likkle love like how wi give the children them love,” the staff member had expressed.

The two accused officials were absent from the meeting.

Students who spoke to the Observer, with their parents’ consent, during that time, claimed, too, that they had been subjected to poor treatment from the officials.

Several attempts by the Observer to reach the officials since October have been unsuccessful.

“After the meeting in November them realise seh the situation bad. Them [Salvation Army] and the ministry go inna one next meeting and decide seh them haffi move them. Things just never did a go get better and it never good fi the children. And what him — Haughton — never like was that the media get involved after them did want to close down boarding fi good,” a staff member close to the situation said.

“Them nuh appoint them nowhere else… them just send them back a Canada, that mi know fi sure,” the staff member added.

The Observer was unable to reach school principal Iyeke Erharuyi for a comment on the development.

Salvation Army School for the Blind caters to students aged three to 20 years old. It is the only one of its kind in the country. It is a partnership between the education ministry and Salvation Army International. Although the property is owned and operated by the Salvation Army, the Ministry of Education provides funding, including payment for staff.