Teaching Services Commission Approves Penalties for Former Excelsior Principal

The Belize Teaching Service Commission has approved the suspension with half pay and demotion in rank of former Excelsior Principal Dawn Watters.  Earlier this year, Watters was found guilty of misappropriating funds and theft at the high school. She has also been sanctioned for bringing the teaching profession into disrepute. News Five is in receipt of a document which says that based on a full revision of the disciplinary matter, the Commission recommends that the managing authority of the high school demotes Watters in rank; that she is fined seven thousand three hundred and thirty dollars and twenty-eight cents and that she is to be suspended for six work weeks at fifty percent salary. In 2019, an investigative committee found that some two hundred thousand dollars were misappropriated by Watters during the period June first, 2017 to September thirtieth, 2018. During a hearing later that year, auditor George Swift informed the Board that a number of cheques had been made in excess of thirty-nine thousand dollars; the audit also uncovered that Social Security contributions and Income Tax payments were withheld from the salaries of teachers, but not paid to the respective institutions. In January of this year, Watters was found guilty by the Board and as we said, the Belize Teaching Service Commission has approved the penalties.