Portland principal eyes training centre for storm-ravaged cottage

At the centre of Comfort Castle Primary and Infant School in Moore Town, Portland, stands an eyesore: an old principal’s cottage which has been in ruins since it lost its roof during the passage of Hurricane Gilbert 34 years ago.

The structure remains intact with lush greenery springing from its foundation and is now the habitat of a range of insects and other fauna.

Although many have encouraged principal of the school, Dalmain Moore, to “knock it down”, he has faith in the old building.

He said the cottage is structurally as sound as it was when he was appointed principal nine years ago.

Moore said he has made efforts to have the building refurbished, but the meagre cash flow of the school, which primarily serves the children of farmers, has not been sufficient to finance the renovation project.

“I’ve been told that the structure is still solid. It just needs to be cleaned up, a new roof, tiles, and painting,” Moore said in a Gleaner interview on the grounds of the school on Friday.

“That has been a sore point since I’ve been here,” added Moore, who said he had not secured donors.

Moore envisions the structure being transformed into a training centre and safe haven for vulnerable youth who are not interested in farming. That vision includes a library, learning centre, and computer lab.

“... When we come into a community, we need to understand what needs are, and in my mind, their needs for other things far outweigh the needs for a principal’s cottage,” Moore, who resides miles away in Boston, told The Gleaner.

“If it’s renovated, then I can understand a room being created there for that purpose, but not the entire cottage, especially when you have a community where a number of the youngsters are unattached, and so I think it’s the best interest of everybody, if you’re trying to uplift the community by creating avenues for employment through the introduction of skills and other areas in the area,” he said.

Seaforth High, in the neighbouring parish of St Thomas, offers a glimmer of hope for Moore.

This academic year, Seaforth transformed its principal’s quarters on the school’s compound into new classrooms to accommodate the Sixth-Form Pathways Programme. Moore hopes to achieve a similar vision.

Moore, who travels miles each day from the Portland town of Boston to Comfort Hall, is bullish about the prospects of a training centre at his school.

Comfort Castle Primary, although specially designed to attend to primary school students, has also been partnering with the HEART/NSTA Trust for evening training classes since 2018, where persons from neighbouring communities, such as Moore Town, Cornwall Barracks and Millbank, benefited from training.

They have so far completed modules in housekeeping courses, a remedial programme in numeracy and literacy, and a Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC)-based programme for persons who have left secondary schools but have not matriculated.

Moore said that the last set of approximately 20 students was accommodated in early 2020 – before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollees were registered for mathematics, English language, social studies, human and social biology, and electronic document preparation management.

The principal said, on an annual basis, some students were not able to pay for their exams, given that their parents are poor farmers, and they had to be assisted.

“It’s really a farming community. Most of the persons are engaged in farming. I’ve heard one person say ‘The children are born in the darkness, and so we try to get them into the light’ so they send them into the light for school,“ he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com