Francis: No money for Claxton Bay school... yet

There is no money in the system to repair the old Marabella South Secondary School so as to temporarily accommodate displaced staff and students from the Claxton Bay Junior Anglican School, Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis says.

On October 5, Francis gave a commitment to principal Avion Alexander, staff, the Anglican School Board, the NPTA and other stakeholders that within two weeks, the Marabella building would be retrofitted and children back in classrooms.

More than three weeks later, angry parents say no scope of work has been prepared, neither tenders nor contracts have been awarded and 166 students are still at home. A parent told Newsday , “We believe Dr Francis’ visit was just to pacify us, because after the minister left, nothing happened.”

The parent spoke after a planned protest outside the school fizzled last Friday morning. About 20 parents gathered, but sat inside the nearby church, refusing to speak out, because as one parent explained, “We are quiet people.”

“When it comes to protesting, we talk about it, but we hardly do it. We are not bold enough to protest. Parents need to get angry enough and actually protest because it is against the law to deny a child the right to an education.” Parents are, however, contemplating legal action against the ministry because their children have not been to school since OSHA condemned the buildings.

When contacted, Francis admitted, “There is no money in the system,” to outfit the Marabella building while the new building is being built. Although the Education Ministry got the largest chunk of the budget, $7.5 billion, Francis said the ministry was waiting for the budget to be passed and funds released before priority projects could be started.

“It is not the ideal situation by any means, but part of this is a consequence of the cycle we are in, in terms of the budget. Nobody really wants to hear that, but it’s the truth,” Francis said. The budget was debated and passed in both Houses of Parliament. “I would have visited to the school, and prior to the budget, we would have decided on a site.

“Unfortunately, I had to devote my time to the budget process, which took almost one month. The process for us (MPs) only ended recently and we are at the point now where we are trying to put things in place so we have the school operational until we could do the substantive building.”

During the October 5 site visit, Francis said the condemned buildings would be torn down and replaced by prefabricated buildings during the Christmas vacation so that children would be able to return to school in January.

“The problem is that we are in the midst of the budget process (debate in the Senate). The process has not ended. The budget has not been passed. So, literally, there is no money in the system.

“We are trying to work our way around that, to get the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert to help us as quickly as he can so we can put things in place.” He said once funds are released, work will start immediately. “It is not going to be difficult work. It might be a bit intricate, and that should take about a week or two,” Francis said.