Things are still unsettled at St. Peter Claver Elementary in Punta Gorda. Standard one and four students were sent home on Monday because their classrooms have asbestos roofs.
The Ministry of Education is paying $22,000 for two buildings to be transferred from a Catholic school in Dangriga to Punta Gorda. But the buildings just left today and steam has been building since Monday where Principal Nolberto took the decision to send the kids home.
He explained why:
Principal Nolberto of St. Peter Claver,
"I have been assured by Mr. Lloyd Flowers who is the engineer from the Ministry of Education that he is personally in charge of getting the buildings here. As a matter of fact, his second will be visiting, along with the company today to look at the site, to look at the route to make sure that they can bring the buildings. They have also assured me that the first building will be here Wednesday evening. That's tomorrow and that the second one will be here the day after. The Management, along with the Ministry, will take up the responsibility to ensure that the buildings are ready for Monday for the students to move in. In the meantime, we are very concerned that the students are at home and they are not learning so beginning Wednesday, the students will come back to school and they will be in the parish hall for the time being."
And while very little censure is reserved for the parish – which is ultimately responsible for managing the school infrastructure – the Ministry of Education representative Arlette Gomez went to Punta Gorda where she told us the buildings are on the way:
Arlette Gomez, Ministry of Education
"Presently, we are working with the management to ensure that the children remain in their classrooms. The ones that were at home have been placed in the parish hall so classes resumed as normal today and we are going to start the transportation today. We will pay for the movement of the building. We will install them at St. Peter Claver and if any small repairs need to be done to have the buildings directed at St. Peter Claver, we are hoping that they will be fully transferred and installed within 7 days, we should have those 6 classrooms at St. Peter Claver."
And while next week Wednesday is set as a tentative date – the buildings will also need some repairs and the installation of electricity and other items which should be the responsibility of the school management – but we'll have to wait and see how that goes.
