In a move to break the ice in the face-off between the teachers and the management of Bala Vidya Mandir, a representation of parents and teachers met with three members of the Bala Brindavan Trust, which manages the school.
The management, represented by Aruna Ranganathan, C. S. Ram, and Rama Krishnan met with 10 teacher and 16 parent representatives on Saturday afternoon in a meeting that lasted over four hours. “The main agenda of both the sides was to ensure that classes started as soon as possible, and to improve trust amongst all stakeholders,” V. Suresh, one of the parents, said.
The parents and teachers put forth three main demands: Reinstatement of Srinivasa Raghavan as principal of BVM Adyar; Recasting of the School Management Committee with proper representation of parents, teachers and educationalists, including ousted CEO S.S. Nathan; and removing the corporate offices of Robotix and Meritus from within the school campus.
Earlier, on June 3, the management had sent a letter reconstituting the School Management Committee to include Mr. Ram, Ms. Ranganathan and Ms. Krishnan. At the same time they had replaced the school principal Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan with S. Sujatha, who was earlier the principal of the BVM Global in Perungudi. Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan was subsequently transferred to BVM Global in Bollineni Hillside.
“The new SMC is not acceptable to the parents, and it should be reconstituted in consultation with the teachers and parents. We would also like Mr. Nathan back in the SMC,” he said.
According to one of the teachers, unless there were confidence building measures on the part of the management, they would not feel safe to go back to school. “These are our minimum requirements, and we know the parents are on our side,” she said.
The management had indicated that they would respond to these demands as soon as possible.
