English School deadlock as Board rejects proposal

THE CRISIS at the English School remained deadlocked yesterday after staff and the school board failed to agree on a proposal to end the dispute at the elite Nicosia school.

At a meeting on Wednesday, the Parents Association and the English School Old Boys and Girls Association (Esobga) proposed that controversial headmaster Thomas Thomas leave his post in August, and an acting headmaster be appointed in his stead until a new official head could be appointed for September 1999.

Staff union Essa accepted the proposal, but the board rejected it, and the negotiations are at a deadlock.

Essa is calling for Thomas’ removal over allegations of favouritism in the promotion of a female member of staff, and what they describe as his “autocratic” style of management.

Esobga told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the negotiation process was expected to continue on Monday.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.