One of the public sector projects listed for construction in the New Year is the Morris Vanterpool Primary School at East End. It is a project that the Minister of Education and Elected Representative for District 2, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, is intimately involved in as well as in the rebuilding of other education projects in Anguilla.
The Morris Vanterpool School was badly damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and has had to be abandoned. Since then, the Government of Anguilla, through the Ministry of Education, undertook to utilizethree rented apartment buildings, owned by Mr. Jim Lewis, to house the students.
Plans are now in hand to rebuild the school at the location where it stood before Hurricane Irma – just east of the site of the old East End School building which was completely destroyed by the hurricane. The modern school building, which is expected to have two floors and various supporting amenities, will be funded under the UK Government’s grant programme for Anguilla.
The extensively damaged and compromised school building was demolished some two weeks ago.
The Minister of Education, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, issued this statement to The Anguillian newspaper:
“As Minister of Education and the Elected Representative of the Sandy Hill District, I am extremely pleased that the demolition of the MVPS has now taken place. Our beloved school was damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and our children, teachers and staff had to be relocated to rental premises (for which we are extremely grateful, as they were made available to us in the circumstances). Demolition of the MVPS was to have taken place shortly after the storm but lack of funding made it impossible at the time.
“But the demolition taking place during this Christmas Season, and completed within half of the anticipated time, is a symbol of revival and renewal for the year 2019. After months of consultation with the teachers, staff and parents of the students at the MVPS, as well as the general community, we are now in the process of finalizing the design plans for the school. We anticipate construction to commence within the first quarter of 2019.
“The demolition and reconstruction of the MVPS could not take place without the hard work of my Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Chanelle Petty Barrett; Chief Education Planner, Mrs. Dawn Reid; and others within the Ministry and Department of Education; the technical team at MICUH assigned to this and other Education projects; the UK Government (through the Governor’s Office); Equal Rights Trucking Company (the company that won the bid to undertake the demolition); and all persons/organizations that would have assisted in one way or another to get us where we are thus far.”
