Romney
The Minister of Education, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, and Mr. Mark Romney, the Government’s Public Relations and Communications Ministerial Assistant, have given a comprehensive report on the plans for the rebuilding of school buildings. The projects are being funded as part of the UK Government grant, of sixty million pounds, following the destruction caused by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. They were at the time speaking at the Government’s town hall meeting at North Hill on Sunday evening, November 18.
Mrs. Richardson-Hodge reported that The Valley Primary School and the Adrian T. Hazell Primary School would be the first of the schools on which construction work is to be undertaken.
“A lot of demolition has taken place at both schools,” the Minister said. The Valley School has one and a half functioning units and the Adrian T. Hazell School has only one new building that is in operation. The children are in a situation where they are doubling up in the classrooms…We are really excited to move forward on these two projects and at least try to ease some of the restrictions. The next focus is the Morris Vanterpool Primary School. We know that school was determined not to be habitable and so the UK Company, WYG, is going to be doing a new design for that school…”
The Minister also spoke about the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School where Campus A was severely damaged by Hurricane Irma to the extent that some eight buildings have had to be demolished, resulting in a shift system for students.
“We have made a decision not to move ahead with relocating Campus B,” she explained. “Initially the seventeen acres of land [in The Quarter] would have included Campus A, Campus B, WISE, PRU as well as the athletic track. We found that the location was very constricted as a result of so many buildings being on the site.
“When we looked at the existing Campus B, we determined that there is room for expansion at the existing location. Similarly to in other countries, where they have the Junior High School and the High School separate, that is the direction we have determined that we will have to go, as well, for Campuses B and A. That means that Campus B will be fully staffed, operating as a Junior High School for all intents and purposes; and then Campus A will be on the seventeen acres of land along with the four hundred meter athletic track.
“The consultant said that the placement of the four hundred meter track is one of the reasons why the property is so constricted, but we [the Ministers of Government] have made a determination that the four hundred meter track must come. As a result of that we have to leave Campus B where it is, and focus on developing Campus A, along with the athletic track. That is where we are in terms of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. They [the architects] have redesigned the plan. They have sent it back to us showing the utilization of the seventeen acres of land along with the athletic track. The next step is now to finalize the costing for it and then move forward with the project.”
Earlier, speaking ahead of the Minister’s arrival, Mr. Mark Romney said that the invitations for bids for the reconstruction phase of the Adrian T. Hazell Primary School had been sent out, via the Procurement Unit of the Ministry of Finance, on Friday, November 9. “The intention is that construction will start fairly soon in the New Year,” he reported. “At the same time at The Valley Primary School, we are at the stage where the final documents have been put together awaiting invitations for bids through the procurement process. Hopefully, the invitations will be sent out by the end of this month – November. The reconstruction of both schools, the largest of the primary schools, will more or less begin simultaneously.”
Mr. Romney observed that the Morris Vanterpool School was the only school that had to be relocated after the hurricane, and that the nearby historical old East End School building was completely destroyed. He pointed out that all the schools to be reconstructed will feature first and second floors. “We will be making full use of the available space,” he noted. “They will also be fitted out with the very latest in terms of media rooms, IT labs and cafeterias. These are all much-added features at the various primary schools.”
The Public Relations Officer reported that, with the arrival of the much-awaited building materials, the roofing of the Vivien Vanterpool Primary School was nearing completion. In addition, the redevelopment work at the Alwyn Allison Primary was also almost completed. Meanwhile, all the plans for reconstruction work at the Orealia Kelly Primary School are also in hand and are being looked into by the UK Company WYG.
