Ruel sues JC for millions

Ruel Reid, the former education minister who resigned amid corruption allegations, is suing the owners of Jamaica College (JC) for millions of dollars he claims is owed to him for the last four years of his contract as principal.

It is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of Reid’s chequered public profile over the six years which saw him being seconded as education minister in 2016, before leaving government three years later and then slapped with criminal charges.

Reid formally remained JC’s principal until he stepped down in November 2021 after reportedly working out a $23-million settlement with the Ministry of Education and the Jamaica College Trust, the legal owners of the St Andrew-based institution.

However, it is now emerging that the silence that followed those talks may not have meant that all was well.

The lawsuit, which was filed on July 31 this year, is against the Jamaica College Trust and the Jamaica College Foundation “for failure to pay … an annual incentive and a monthly salary top-up for the period 2017 to 2021” based on the terms and conditions of his employment contract with the trust, according to court documents.

Reid was appointed principal in September 2007 and granted special leave in 2016 to take up the ministerial role. He was also a senator. The leave expired in November 2021 and he was contractually obligated to return to work as the school’s principal.

OUTSTANDING BALANCE

Reid, who was adviser to Andrew Holness when he held the education portfolio during the Bruce Golding administration, is also claiming damages for alleged breach of contract.

He has asked the court to order an accounting to be done to determine the total incentive payment due to him, taking inflation into consideration.

Reid also wants approximately $1.5 million that he claims represents the outstanding balance of the monthly salary top-up due to him based on his contract.

When contacted by The Sunday Gleaner, Reid directed queries to attorney Matthew McAnuff-Jones of the law firm Samuda & Johnson, who confirmed that Reid is a client. But he said the firm does not comment on clients’ ongoing cases.

King’s Counsel Michael Hylton, a consultant at the firm Hylton Powell, is representing the Jamaica College Trust and the Jamaica College Foundation. He declined to comment on the details of the case.

Sunday Gleaner questions sent to Education Minister Fayval Williams were not answered up to press time.

FORCED INTO A SETTLEMENT

Up to September 2021, Reid was being paid an annual salary and benefits totalling about $5.5 million from the government alone as the school’s principal. The full top-up and incentive payment from the JC Trust has never been revealed.

Jamaica College was forced into a settlement to head off the concerns around Reid retaking his chair as principal after the education ministry rejected a board recommendation for a five-year extension of Reid’s special leave that was due to expire in November 2021.

Shortly after the deal, the trust disclosed that it provided $7.2 million and the education ministry gave $16.1 million.

Much of the details surrounding the negotiations, as well as Reid’s contract, were kept away from the public so it is not clear how much Reid demanded and how the $23.3 million figure was arrived at.

Reid has confirmed that he received the separation payment.

OLD BOYS CONCERNED

A statement from a group of JC old boys said the court case brings back into focus questions surrounding the settlement negotiations and the details.

“There are so many details about this deal between the board ... and Ruel Reid that we don’t know ... and now this,” the group said.

“The JCOBA (Jamaica College Old Boys Association) held a position that Ruel Reid should have been dismissed for bringing the office of principal into disrepute and that’s why we were excluded from those negotiations [and] evicted from the campus,” it added, before noting the “persecution” of former association head Major Basil Jarrett, who is now in a legal fight with the trust.

PRINCIPAL POST STILL VACANT

The post left vacant by Reid has not been permanently filled, with little indication of whether the board has satisfied concerns about its recommendation for Wayne Robinson, who has been acting principal since 2016, to be appointed to the position.

“The principal was interviewed and a recommendation was made. It’s tabled at the Teachers’ Services Commission. So you should be hearing something soon,” Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the education ministry, told querying lawmakers at an October 11 meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee.

In a memorandum dated May 24, 2022, the commission’s secretariat had declared that after reviewing documents submitted by the board, Robinson “does not have three years of service as a trained teacher in a public educational institution”.

“Kindly submit a letter justifying the board’s selection and a request to waive the requirements for appointment to the post,” it asked the JC board in the document obtained by The Sunday Gleaner.

Michael Bernard, chairman of the JC board, and Derek Jones, chairman of the JC Trust, issued a statement last year insisting that Robinson met the qualifications.

They relied on, and published, an October 2019 letter signed by Troupe in her then role as acting chief education officer.

In that letter, she said the ministry reviewed Robinson’s master’s degree from the US-based Western Carolina University and based on his qualification, he “has now attained the trained graduate status”.

Reid, his wife Sharen, their daughter Sharelle, former president of the Caribbean Maritime University, Fritz Pinnock, and Jamaica Labour Party councillor Kim Brown Lawrence are facing accusations in relation to nearly $50 million which law enforcement claims was allegedly diverted from the university.

They are to stand trial for a range of offences, including breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, conspiracy to defraud, misconduct in a public office at common law, and breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act.

jovan.johnson@gleanerjm.com