Overflowing sewer shuts down Happy Haven school

The Happy Haven school for children with special needs in Signal Hill was forced to shut its doors on Wednesday as a longstanding problem with an overflowing raw sewerage came to a head.

Orlando Kerr, Tobago Officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association said the school will be closed until further notice

“There is a situation that has been existing for quite a few months and it relates to the sewer system where raw sewage is leaking from the system and the stench is unbearable,” Kerr told Newsday Tobago on Wednesday.

He said the Division of Education was made award the overflowing sewer even prior told the start of vacation school repair programme in July and August.

Kerr said the students at the school have been living with the leaking sewerage and stench for months, but on Wednesday the principal decided to treat with the health and safety considerations of teachers and students and has suspended classes until sewer was fixed.

Kerr also pointed to problems at other schools on the island, noting that the Speyside Anglican Primary school was also having a problem with the sewer system, but teachers there have decided to continue classes.

“There is also a situation at Roxborough Anglican where (pieces of) the concrete ceiling is falling out for months now. All the students are being put into the older buildings which are cramped for space. Also at Roxborough Secondary, water is leaking and have damaged the School Based Assessment (SBA) assignments of some art students,” he reported.

“We are seeing a trend developing where emergency situations at our schools are being ignored. The Division (Education) is claiming they have no funding but there are some situations you cannot leave to continue. If the Division doesn’t address these issues we (TTUTA) will be forced to ask our members to remove themselves from a compound that is unsafe,” he added.

Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, who is also Secretary for Education, said at last Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex Calder Hall, that he was aware of the problems at the various schools and that the Division was taking action to have them resolved.

Charles said he met on Tuesday with the Administrator in the Division, and a course of action has been decided on for the Happy Haven school.

“The action we agreed upon was the fixing of the sewer. Since it came to my attention I instructed the Administrator to contact the principal and the school board so that this situation could be resolved,” he said.

On the deteriorating ceiling at the Roxborough Anglican school, he said:

“Funding had to be sourced simply because the solution that was proposed in the first instant, I rejected it because it had to do with using concrete and I know concrete can’t join. So we looked for other options and the option that we have selected would be in excess of $120, 000. We signed off on an arrangement and work is supposed to begin on this weekend”

He said he expected the repairs to completed by Monday.