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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>PAT ROXBOROUGH-WRIGHT, Editor-at-Large/Western Bureau
Thursday, August 03, 2006
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>GAYLE. We need to recover the winning culture, the boys need to see it happen</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>For the next two weeks, Branford Gayle will be busy documenting the blueprint for the success he set out to achieve in 2004 when he became the principal of Munro College for Boys in St Elizabeth.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"I intend to disappear for about two weeks to concretise some of the systems and policies we are trying to get going to see if we can get the school ready for the 21st century," Gayle told Observer West. "A lot of Munro's operations are like the British constitution - unwritten, so you'll be told 'we usually do things this way' but there's a need for policies to turn to."<P class=StoryText align=justify>From the perspective of a succession planner and indeed anyone familiar with the roller -coaster attrition rate the school has experienced where principals are concerned since 1997, it certainly makes sense. For in 2008 when Gayle turns 60, he intends to retire. "I believe that when it is time to retire, you retire, so unless the powers that be twist my arm to stay, I'll go," he said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Until then, he intends to move full steam ahead with plans to recover what he calls the winning edge for the boarding school, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in November this year with a full slate of activities highlighting its history, achievements and vision for the future.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We need to win something," said Gayle. "We have not won the daCosta Cup since 1964. We haven't won cricket since 1974. Before Munro got the Jamaica scholarship last year, it had been 18 years since we had gotten one. We need to recover the winning culture, the boys need to see it happen."<P class=StoryText align=justify>The hunger for victory is perfectly understandable against the background of the 11 years he spent at Manchester High School as principal. Those years, which he describes as the best of his career, were saturated with victories in sports and academia. The school's student population soared under his tenure from 1,300 to 1,700, with the biggest increase taking place in the sixth form which moved from 75 to 250 students.<P class=StoryText align=justify>There were personal victories too, the type that would make good material for an autobiography. Take for instance any one of the dozens of stories he can tell you about his interaction with Sherone Simpson, the world's current sprint queen. Simpson, who is now studying hospitality management at the University of Technology, (UTech), spent seven years as a student at Manchester High School when Gayle was principal.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He's understandably very proud to have known her, not just because of the gold medals she's achieved at the highest level of the sporting arena, but because he believed and encouraged her long before that. He's also proud to have been instrumental in orchestrating the combination of the Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS)-sponsored boys' and girls' annual athletic championships, as well as the revival of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) awards ceremony which sees the top three performers in any subject in those examinations being acknowledged in an annual ceremony at the Karram-Speid auditorium in Kingston.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He's equally proud to have known Danielle Chai and Andre Morgan, both of whom copped the annual
Thursday, August 03, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=365 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>GAYLE. We need to recover the winning culture, the boys need to see it happen</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>For the next two weeks, Branford Gayle will be busy documenting the blueprint for the success he set out to achieve in 2004 when he became the principal of Munro College for Boys in St Elizabeth.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"I intend to disappear for about two weeks to concretise some of the systems and policies we are trying to get going to see if we can get the school ready for the 21st century," Gayle told Observer West. "A lot of Munro's operations are like the British constitution - unwritten, so you'll be told 'we usually do things this way' but there's a need for policies to turn to."<P class=StoryText align=justify>From the perspective of a succession planner and indeed anyone familiar with the roller -coaster attrition rate the school has experienced where principals are concerned since 1997, it certainly makes sense. For in 2008 when Gayle turns 60, he intends to retire. "I believe that when it is time to retire, you retire, so unless the powers that be twist my arm to stay, I'll go," he said.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Until then, he intends to move full steam ahead with plans to recover what he calls the winning edge for the boarding school, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in November this year with a full slate of activities highlighting its history, achievements and vision for the future.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"We need to win something," said Gayle. "We have not won the daCosta Cup since 1964. We haven't won cricket since 1974. Before Munro got the Jamaica scholarship last year, it had been 18 years since we had gotten one. We need to recover the winning culture, the boys need to see it happen."<P class=StoryText align=justify>The hunger for victory is perfectly understandable against the background of the 11 years he spent at Manchester High School as principal. Those years, which he describes as the best of his career, were saturated with victories in sports and academia. The school's student population soared under his tenure from 1,300 to 1,700, with the biggest increase taking place in the sixth form which moved from 75 to 250 students.<P class=StoryText align=justify>There were personal victories too, the type that would make good material for an autobiography. Take for instance any one of the dozens of stories he can tell you about his interaction with Sherone Simpson, the world's current sprint queen. Simpson, who is now studying hospitality management at the University of Technology, (UTech), spent seven years as a student at Manchester High School when Gayle was principal.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He's understandably very proud to have known her, not just because of the gold medals she's achieved at the highest level of the sporting arena, but because he believed and encouraged her long before that. He's also proud to have been instrumental in orchestrating the combination of the Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS)-sponsored boys' and girls' annual athletic championships, as well as the revival of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) awards ceremony which sees the top three performers in any subject in those examinations being acknowledged in an annual ceremony at the Karram-Speid auditorium in Kingston.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He's equally proud to have known Danielle Chai and Andre Morgan, both of whom copped the annual
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