Anguillian career public servant, Mr. Bren Romney, who made a distinctive contribution to the Department of Youth and Culture and to youth development, had his last day at the DYC on Friday, July 5. That was when his former staff members, who will greatly miss him and his energetic leadership, held a sumptuous farewell party for him.
He is succeeded by the newly-appointed Director of Youth and Culture, Ms. Avon Carty, who previously served as a Senior Programme Officer. He now holds the post of Chief Education Officer, having replaced Mrs. Rhonda Connor who served in the position with much pride, commitment and accomplishment and has now retired. For his part, Romney, a very skilled, professional and respected individual, had spent a number of years in education, previously, and is looking forward on his return to that branch of the public sector to help influence the teaching and learning process across the schools in Anguilla.
“I think I am very pleased with what we were able to do at the Department of Youth and Culture for the last five years,” Mr. Romney said in an interview with The Anguillian newspaper while being called away to the waiting luncheon. “I want to thank the staff at the Department and within the Ministry and the Ministers I worked with. I think we all had clear goals. We were working hand-in-hand and supporting each other, and everything that was accomplished at this Department, over the last five years, was accomplished through a team effort.
“I had the opportunity to thank the staff in detail this morning for all their efforts; their commitment; long hours and their weekends. I think nothing was accomplished here by one individual although the leader is important; and the orientation of that person, and that person’s general approach, is critical to the success of the team. But I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to say thank you to the staff at a very long and relaxing session because I could not have done it without them.”
At The Anguillian newspaper’s request, Mr. Romney outlined a long and impressive series of accomplishments at the DYC which, if detailed here, would take several pages. Suffice it to say that, when he took up his position in 2013, there were about three or four staff members and a budget of 885,000 dollars; youth and community programmes were at a minimum level. Five years later there is a Youth and Culture Department with 12 staff members; a budget of over 3 million dollars; the Department is now structured in two distinct divisions; various stakeholder groups have been established and there are a host of youth and community programmes.
About his departure, he said:
“As I leave, I am very happy that my replacement is someone from the team – Ms. Avon Carty. I have every confidence in my Senior Officers, and I congratulated her for successfully attaining the position of Director. I am very confident that she will do an exceptional job. She has the respect of all the staff members. They have worked together with her in the past. This is not new. She has been acting for me on multiple occasions.”
Asked about his decision to quit the very active Department of Youth and Culture, the almost “larger-than-life” outgoing Director replied: “ I applied for the post of Chief Education Officer because I thought my Department was at a point where it could do with a change… I wanted to go back to education to make a contribution there as well. I remember some advice I received from the previous Director of the Department of Youth and Culture, Joash Proctor. When he reached his five-year term he thought that it was important that he moved on to something else thus giving another person an opportunity at the helm.
“That type of renewal is important for a number of reasons. It is important because you are dealing with artists, young people and cultural girls who are creative. These are people who like change, look at new directions, different ways of doing things – and you have to be just as dynamic, as they are, if you are going to work with them and support them. The Department needs to be dynamic. It needs change and it needs to be rapid. Further, the Department has a very young staff who are also very ambitious, and there is a need to create opportunities for them to move up the ladder. When the post in Education came up I thought it was a very good opportunity for me to go back to make a contribution to the development of the Education Department – and to continue my first love which was teaching.
“It is a career that I dedicated 27 years to. I started as a young teacher in 1991 and taught at every level from primary to secondary and tertiary. As a matter of fact before I returned to Anguilla I taught at the University of London (Queen Mary). Then I taught for a year plus at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, and became Head of Department [ICT] there before I came to the Department of Youth and Culture. So I am going back home.”
Now with eyes back on Education, Romney told the newspaper: “The Permanent Secretary, Mrs .Chanelle Petty Barrett, and I met with teachers and administrators at all the primary schools and the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. Personally, I met with the outgoing Chief Education Officer, Mrs. Rhonda Connor, whom, I want to publicly thank for her service to Anguilla. She was a stalwart for educational development and the progress we have seen over the last two or three decades. I think she did the best she could under very difficult circumstances. I appreciate the resilience. I was at her side after Hurricane Irma, while Acting Permanent Secretary Education, when we had to grapple with the disaster left behind – and how to bring the education system back on track…
“It is so strange that I have to be the one to come back after her to return us to a state of normalcy. I appreciate all the efforts that everyone is making towards that end – from the Permanent Secretary, Education; Planner; the Minister; Government of Anguilla; Education Department; and officials of the British Government for the Anguilla Programme with the rebuilding of many of our schools.”
Apart from his meetings with other persons, as well as education partners, Mr. Romney also met with many parents and community activists who requested meetings with him, and the Permanent Secretary, to share their ideas.
Having had all those consultations, Romney stated: “I now have a pretty good idea how I am going to approach the post of Chief Education Officer. I went through all of that to determine whether I need to change my approach to the leadership of a larger organisation, with a larger budget and larger responsibilities. I realise not really because my approach to Youth and Culture was along the same lines of what I am now hearing from teachers and administrators that there is a need to do more. Immediately, you are not going to see any changes because we want stability. But I want to continue the dialogue with teachers and administrators within the education system and the Ministry – and to try to craft an easy way forward.”
He added: “Fate would have it that right now we are going through a planning process for the next Five-Year Education Plan. So I am coming in right at the beginning. All the work that we have done over the last couple of weeks will be fed into that planning process…We will strengthen what we do well; start facing our challenges head-on; and we will be very proactive in how we go about our task.”
Mr. Romney is a highly-educated person. In 1999 he was awarded a Government of Anguilla Scholarship tenable in Texas where he did double Bachelor degrees in Computer Information Systems and Economics. Later, he obtained his Masters there in Public Policy & Politics.
From there he was awarded a scholarship to the University of London where he did Postgraduate Studies and Research. After graduating he taught at Queen Mary College (University of London) for five years before returning to Anguilla to continue his teaching career.
