'She's royal!'Vera Buckley reflects on 35 years at St Richard's Primary

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

AT HER official send-off from St Richard's Primary School in late November, held in the church on the same premises at 126 Red Hills Road, St Andrew, former principal Vera Buckley danced. She got up from her front-pew seat as the school's Tres Dolce Band played She's Royal, and the student body screamed for the lifelong educator's sprightly skanks - including a couple twirls - the lady they know as 'Ms Buckley' beaming as she moved to the music then returning to her seat.

There would have been those in the church that day who knew Ms Buckley the dancer outside the church hall 'dropping legs' in the schoolyard with the children and carrying the day on one memorable trip to Clarendon when she tipped a dance contest in St Richard's favour with a move the children claimed had not yet been released. However, very few - if any - would have had a memory of Vera Buckley, who last cast a back-straightening eye over arriving students at the end of the 2009-2010 academic year, 1974.

St Richard's had advertised for a male teacher specialising in remedial reading. Buckley did not intend to stay longer than five years. Both school and teacher's plans went awry as St Richard's got a woman who not only stayed for seven times her self-allotted term, but also became principal - to her own surprise.

"When (then principal) Sister Cabrini was about to leave, there was that vacant position. I wasn't showing any interest. I never thought I would be senior teacher, much less vice-principal or principal," she said. "I never aspired to be anything in education. All I wanted to do was be a good remedial reading teacher. I wanted to ensure that children who came not reading, I would be there to help them and build their confidence and self-esteem.

"People might say I was not ambitious. I just did what I ought to do and if there was anything else I could do, whether or not it was in my area or not, I did it."

Buckley cried on the day she was interviewed for the principal's position. "That morning, I was feeling overwhelmed. I was wondering about these people who thought I would be a good principal, if I would disappoint them," she said. Outgoing principal Sister Cabrini comforted her, and off she went to the interview.

Many years earlier, Sister Cabrini welcomed Buckley to St Richard's to teach remedial reading for one term. Even though she was asked to stay on at the end of the term, there was still that five-year limit applied to any school. The discipline that Buckley saw at St Richard's changed her mind. "I never saw a fight. Children queued to go to the water trough," she said.

Ground commander

Like the rest of the society, things have changed at St Richard's, and Buckley said: "The students are living in an era where indiscipline is the norm, but most know what is expected of them. Most would know what they should do and they bring those out of line in line."

I like my leadership style: participatory team work. I kept an open office. I trusted people and so people lived up to that level of trust," Buckley said. However, she added, "If I had to get autocratic, I went into that gear." Not only the staff, but also the parent-teacher association (PTA) were critical to running the school, and Buckley said, "You wish every school had the kind of support that St Richard's has from its PTA."

And she took a hands-on approach to the day-to-day running of St Richard's. "I was called ground commander. I guess I was always on the ground. I was never one who thought my office was there to stay in. I had to see what was going on. My temporary office was under a tree," Buckley said.

There is one particular hands-on incident which underscores leadership by participation. For one Children's Activity Day, Buckley settled on a project to clean the bathrooms. Some teachers were upset, saying that they would not have wanted their child to clean the bathroom at school. "I asked the parents for permission. The students were eager," she said.

Along with the students whose parents consented, Buckley said, "I worked with them in cleaning the toilets for that day. I never asked someone to do what I would not do."

There was another Children's Day, when she had just returned from leave, and with the assistance of teachers, Buckley packaged and personally delivered a present to every child at St Richard's.

Being ground commander also meant extending her presence to the surrounding area. She said she would walk or drive through the nearby communities, including Park Lane, 100 Lane, and 'Common', which is adjacent to St Richard's, speaking to persons there. On one Christmas visit, some men called out, "Ms Buckley, you are the best principal over there. Who else walk through here?"

"I was never, ever afraid," Buckley said.

There was one particular incident, though. "One Friday I was going to the library with my class. I saw two guys from the community going through the schoolyard. One of them had a rifle, holding it by his side. I got frightened, but I could not show it. I took the students to a point and told them to go up to the library and wait for me, and then I went back to the office to tell the principal. By then they were gone," Buckley said.

The nearby fast-food outlet was not out of her range, as she would walk in and stop wayward students at whatever point they were in their meal and send them back over to St Richard's.

And, as ground commander, she would get down to earth with the children - at times she would skip, dance, play cricket, and run the 100 metres. These are among her treasured memories.

One of her proudest moments was when a grade-two student asked her father how Ms Buckley could be so strict and so nice. But there were the disappointments as well. "There was one boy we got in grade three, and up to when I was leaving, he was in grade five or six and he still could not read. We want everybody who leaves to master the skill," she said.

The unfinished library project, which is intended to facilitate students and their parents, is another disappointment.

Looking back

Vera Buckley considers the school she was hired to teach at for a term and where she did not intend to stay for more than five years critical to her being recognised for her contribution to education. "I understand I was awarded the Order of Distinction (OD) because if it were not for St Richard's, my work would not have been seen that much," she said.

"I was in the right place. The perception has remained that we are the top primary school in the Corporate Area - some would say Caribbean. We can see it. When we look at the performance in GSAT, we have not only maintained what we had from before my being principal, but improved on it."

Having retired from St Richard's, Buckley works as a team leader in a school-inspection unit. From this perspective, when she looked back at her 35-year stint, Buckley said, "Some of the things I am proud of, and some things I could have done more."

She has also seen some past St Richard's students in the high-school setting. "Recently, I went to Campion to do school inspection. I was humbled when we saw the number of St Richard's students who were in leadership positions, participating in devotion for the teachers, in upper sixth form. It made me proud, but humbled," she said.