KINGSTON, Jamaica — Principal La Sonja Harrison has been unanimously elected to serve as the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president for the 2026 to 2027 term, amid ongoing legal challenges against the union and intense debates surrounding teacher salaries and regulation.

Harrison, the principal of St Faiths Primary, secured a preliminary total of 6651 votes in last week’s election, far exceeding her opponents.

The other candidates were Jermaine Williams, a teacher at the Mannings High, who received 2,771 votes, and Maureen Mullings Nelson, a lecturer at the Mico University College, who received 1,883 votes.

There was a total of 11,610 votes cast in the election.

Harrison will succeed current president-elect Mark Malabver who will lead the association between 2025 and 2026.

She will be officially proclaimed at the 61st Annual Conference scheduled for August 18 to 20, 2025 at the Princess Grand Hotel, Hanover.

The former JTA president had previously indicated that she had no intention of dropping her lawsuit against the union, even if she was elected.

READ: Standing firm: Former JTA president seeking second term not dropping lawsuit against teachers’ union

The situation, which has been a bone of contention in the teachers’ union, began in March 2023 when the JTA signed an agreement to accept the wage offer presented by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service that would guarantee a 20 per cent minimum increase in basic salary after tax. The agreement took effect April 1, 2022. However, on the day of the signing of the compensation review memorandum of understanding, Harrison, who was president at the time, was unavailable at the point when signatures were to be affixed to the document.

She had reportedly ditched the meeting after asking educator Leighton Johnson, who was the president-elect at the time, to do the signing.

In July last year Harrison filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court aimed at nullifying the agreement with the Government. In the suit, Harrison contends that the special delegates’ vote held virtually in March last year to accept the wage offer presented by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service was in breach of the JTA’s constitution.

Eighty per cent of the delegates who attended the virtual meeting voted to accept the three-year agreement. At the time, then newly installed JTA President Mark Smith, in his presidential address, said he supported the move taken by Harrison to vote against the package as what teachers were carrying home was unacceptable.