Repairs to Portland schools delay full reopening

PORT ANTONIO, PORTLAND:

Administrators of the Titchfield High School in Port Antonio, Portland, have been forced to reschedule cohorts as repair work is still being carried out to several classrooms. The situation, they say, will not allow for a full complement of students this week.

During a visit to the school on Monday, the start of the 2024/2025 academic school year, workmen were seen repairing the school’s roofing in several sections on the building.

Vice principal Sheryl Horne-Mair outlined the situation, saying:“We are short of 21 classrooms, so with that in mind we have to strategically decide which groups come in. So our grade 7s and grade 11s will come in every day for the week.”

“But we will rotate the other grade 11s that come in. So Monday, for example, our grade 10s will come in, on Tuesday instead of the grade 10 we will have the grade 8. On Wednesday instead of the grade 8 or grade 10 we have the grade 9s coming in, and on Thursday and Friday our grade 10 will come back in. All of the areas that we house the students would have been impacted ... our grade 7 & 8, our grade 10 and 11. So there is only one area that would not have been impacted and that’s grade 9.She explained that the school had no direct control over the flow of work.

“The school is not responsible for the repairs. The Ministry of Education would have contracted someone and there is a project manager here, who does all of the activity, and would have communicated with the ministry’s regional office. So we really have no hands on with the project taking place. The best we can do is go with the timeline provided by the project manager,” she added.

According to Horne-Mair, during a visit to the school on Thursday of last week, Education Minister Fayval Williams hinted that the repairs to the school’s roofing would have been completed and ready for the start of the school. But that deadline suffered further delay due to torrential rainfall Thursday afternoon, the entire day Friday, and parts of Saturday.

“So due to the several days of heavy rainfall that timeline fell through as it prevented the workmen from completing their work. The zinc arrived over the weekend, so it is really for them to affix the zinc to the roofing. So we might have to set another schedule for students,” she concluded.

Titchfield High was ravaged during the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 3, which caused significant roof damage to at least 21 classrooms and sections of the administrative building, including the principal’s office.

Tanya Sinclair, community relations senior education officer, said that efforts will continue to ensure that the project is completed as soon as possible at the institution. She pointed out that weather conditions and other unforeseen challenges have led to the delay in the completion of the project.

“But we are, however, very grateful that the administration has taken a number of initiatives to ensure that some of our children are here today – alternating the year groups, so we have grades 7, 10, and 11. And we are pleased with the turnout,” she commented.

“We would have preferred if all the classrooms were ready for school this morning. All our grade levels would be out, but we are used to the challenges, and we will circumvent them and ensure that teaching and learning happens. We continue to liaise with the contractors and we will see what other support or what else we can do to have the project completed. We are already behind the scheduled completion time,” she added.

Sinclair said that other schools in Portland, including Happy Grove High, faced similar challenges due to slow repair work, but preliminary reports have indicated that schools are in session.