Primary, high schools for Sheffield Palms
Published:Wednesday | August 30, 2023 | 12:10 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
VICKESHIA BOX, director of Sheffield Palms Development, says Roman Catholic primary and high schools will be built in the underconstruction community over the next three years.
“The projected Sheffield Palms primary and high schools will open their doors to the first cohort of students in September 2026,” said Box.
“In the interest of the community, we will embark on bolstering local social advancement by providing all necessary support to the Government of Jamaica to build a future Sheffield Palms Primary and Sheffield Palms High School, a community centre and other physical resources,” Box said.
“It will be a model like Campion (College), which is not a private school,” she told The Gleaner.
Box highlighted that Sheffield Palms Development’s co-director, Chescot Brownie, is the visionary behind this project, and is planning to engage the Roman Catholic Church education board in helping to shape the outcome of these facilities.
Reverend Ronald Thwaites, the national coordinator for education in the Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica, praised the developers’ aim to strive for a Catholic education model to improve the sector and provide wholesome education.
He stated that, while formal discussions between himself and the developers have not yet occurred, the concept can only help the children who will stroll its halls and learn in its classrooms and labs.
“This has happened before, and the Church has a reputation for educational excellence, more importantly academic excellence and the wholesome characters that we try to form, so it would be good,” Thwaites told The Gleaner.
“I am very pleased to hear that, because the Church has recently opened a high school for boys in Montego Bay – The Monsignor Gladstone Wilson College. It is beginning slowly but ambitiously, as all of these schools do,” he continued.
Morland Wilson, member of parliament for Westmoreland Western, in which Retreat is located and where the Sheffield Palms developers hope to build two schools, praised the proposed educational model.
ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS
However, he stated that both the developers and the Ministry of Education and Youth should collaborate on its curriculum and ensure that STEM education and tourism management are essential components among the offerings.
“There is a dire need for space in the constituency, and the Sheffield Palms schools will help the constituency in a variety of ways, including reducing class sizes,” Wilson added. “I would like more classroom space so that students can receive a better education.
“We have a lot of youngsters in the constituency who are not interested in the normal type of work,” Wilson told The Gleaner.
“They are more interested in technology, working with computers, and working online,”he said, emphasising the need for STEM education.
Sheffield Palms Development is currently constructing phase one of the Sheffield Palms housing project in Retreat, which consists of 113 homes.
In the first phase, the housing project will supply 60 two-bedroom housing alternatives to Jamaicans through the National Housing Trust’s Guaranteed Purchase Programme.
The first 30 units are planned to be finished by March 2024, with the remaining 30 delivered to residents by September 2024.
According to Box, construction on phase two is expected to begin next year.
“In the second phase, we believe we can safely break ground around August 2024,” she stated.
This projection, she noted, corresponds to the increase in new hotel building currently under way in Negril. She emphasised that Sheffield Palms is in an excellent location for easy housing solutions for hotel and other essential industry personnel.
“What makes this vision even more exciting is that it extends beyond this project. The plan is to expand into other phases of Sheffield Palms, including phases two and three, which will require an additional 200 acres,” she added.
“As this project extends beyond the confines of construction to community development, with endless possibilities,” Box continued. “This is an opportunity to foster collaboration, community pride and spirit, and to further stimulate economic and social growth in this community.”