Westwood High targeting repairs after Beryl’s battering
Published:Tuesday | July 9, 2024 | 12:10 AMRochelle Clayton/Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
“Hurricane Beryl has treated us badly.”
This was the declaration of Karen Francis, principal of the 142-year-old Westwood High School in Stewart Town, Trelawny, on Monday.
During a visit to the school on Monday afternoon, Francis told The Gleaner that the roofs of several buildings have been damaged.
She explained that while work has started to push Westwood into recovery mode, they will need additional resources to adequately prepare for the upcoming school year.
“We are suffering the effects of the hurricane,” Francis stressed. “We have lost some roofs. The biology lab has lost its roof. We have lost sheets of zinc from the auditorium.
“We also had some damage to the main building – the wooden railings – we lost some of those and we had just refurbished that last year.”
In addition, two classrooms have also lost their roofs, and a section of dining room and technical drawing room were also damaged, said Francis.
She noted that the hilly terrain on which the school is located made it particularly vulnerable.
When asked about the hurricane’s impact on the upcoming school year, Francis explained that the school is yet to recover from two major fires, so “it is just adding more on plenty”.
In 2017, a blaze gutted sections of the school and left damage to a kitchen, storeroom, dining room and changing room, while in 2023, overheated tablets are said to have caused major damage to the school’s dormitory. There were no reports of injuries in either incident.
Francis, however, is hopeful that her 734 students will have a comfortable learning environment come September.
“We are anticipating that we will start working or the ministry will start working on the dining room this summer,” Francis said.
“In terms of the roofs, we will have to solicit assistance, but I am hopeful that it will be done speedily,” she added.
In the meantime, Francis has sought to reassure her incoming grade seven students and their parents that Westwood High is prepared and ready to accommodate them.
“Based on how the roofs are, I think we can recover by September. Well, we have to. We have no choice. We are just hopeful that all will be well for school. I believe we will recover by then,” she reiterated.
At the same time, Westwood is among three of Jamaica’s oldest secondary institutions that were badly damaged during Hurricane Beryl. Over in Westmoreland, the Category 4 hurricane has left a devastating impact on the 286-year-old The Manning’s School. While in St Elizabeth, the 168-year-old Munro College was not spared.