Yet another honour for Raymon Treasure
York Castle Principal
Raymon Treasure, considered by many as a revolutionary educator who has transformed York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St Ann, is one of the 80 recipients of the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for Service to Education 2022.
Charnele Henry of JIS who interviewed him wrote: “The decorated Principal of York Castle High School in St. Ann, who has received awards for leadership from the Jamaica Teaching Council and the St. Ann Chamber of Commerce, among other organisations, says the Medal of Appreciation is a different level of accomplishment.”
Says Mr Treasure “At the local level, people are always going to say you are doing a good [deed]. But to be recognised at the national level tells you that you are making an impact nationally. It felt as if my accomplishments were recognised at the highest level [and] to have been numbered among that illustrious group was a great feeling,”
He believes his strength lies in his capacity to develop programmes in response to the needs of young people and the economy around him.
Since entering the field of education in 1991, Mr. Treasure has focused on spurring significant improvements to the institutions and young lives with which he has been associated.
He began his service in education as a Politics and Government and History lecturer at Brown’s Town Community College in St. Ann.
He later became the director of the institution’s Technical Campus, an arm of the College he conceptualised and helped to establish on the site of the old Kaiser Bauxite Company administrative offices in Discovery Bay, St. Ann, in 2001.
In 2007, Mr. Treasure was appointed Principal of York Castle High School. He told JIS News that the move required adjustments to his approach to administration, as no longer was he interfacing with adults and young adults, but, rather, was responsible for guiding the lives of teenaged boys and girls.
He said that, as the eighth principal of York Castle, his goals were to enhance the educational programmes and position the school to recapture its place among Jamaica’s premier co-educational secondary institutions.
Mr. Treasure says constant reaffirmation of the students and reminders that they are among the best and brightest in the Caribbean changed their mindset, resulting in better academic outputs. Students became more attuned to embodying the ‘Yorkist’ spirit.
The school now has roughly 1,400 enrolled students and has increased its CSEC subject offerings from just above 20 to 32 subject areas. These include animation and augmented reality, digital media, mechanical engineering, and economics.
York Castle has also produced several top regional candidates in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) and Jamaica’s 2021 Rhodes Scholar.
He continues to build partnerships with other institutions, including Brown’s Town High – with the two Brown’s Town based institutions sharing in the recruitment of teachers in hard to fill positions. There has been also a revolutionary collaboration with
Mount Pleasant Football Academy to afford York Castle access to some of the best footballers in the country. York Castle has topped Zone I in the current DaCosta Cup first round. The school is also partnering with tertiary institutions, such as the Delaware State University, and the Caribbean Maritime University in response to students’ desire to pursue tertiary education early.
(Editor’s Note: Most of the information in this story is from a feature by Charnele Henry of JIS, in a feature for that Government agency.)
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness (right), presents York Castle High School Principal Raymon Treasure, with the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for Service to Education during a ceremony at Jamaica House on September 8.
Raymon Treasure (right), beams with pride as he displays his medal of appreciation for service to education received from Prime Minister Andrew Holness, on September 8.
Principal of the York Castle High School, Raymon Treasure (right), converses with upper-school students (from left) Serena Palmer, Makayla McKoy, and Dajon McCalpin.
JIS Photos
