Hon. Fahie: ESHS library was part of master plan!
“The Elmore Stoutt High School, a master plan was done to deal with repairs of the school, seeing that we were not going to be able to get the new buildings right away. This master plan was put in place by hiring of an architect, and his responsibility was multi-faceted. The master plan had a few items on agenda. One was the outdoor cafeteria which was done in the form of tents, refurbish older class rooms, some older classrooms were made technology ready, replacing the windows, doors, air condition. About 16 class rooms were part of design in the contract and also to do the library was part of the contract. It was a multi-faceted approach,” the former minister explained to Virgin Islands News Online.
The library and resource centre of the school was re-opened on June 12, 2012 where current education Minister Hon. Myron Walwyn said it was his first decision as minister.
According to Hon. Fahie, although the plans were scaled back the library still looks beautiful.
“I am glad that the library has been completed and glad the master plan that was started was able to be followed through and completed, so I gave credit to the minister for completing it,” Fahie told Virgin Islands News Online.
However, in outlining the reasons behind dealing with the other issues ahead of the library, the former Education Minister said his team had to make a conscious to commence the library after getting the students off the streets with the on-campus lunch programme.
“All of this was done as one plan, and we had to take in stages what was most urgent. We didn’t want to do the library first and then have to get the students off the streets in the middle of the term that would have been a little messy. We had to make a conscious decision of what to do first so that we can minimize any negative impact when we are trying to do something positive so that is why the library was on the top priority list but not the number one giving the list of things with cafeteria, restrooms and classrooms.”
And while he also acknowledged that the lunch programme will need improvements, the 1st district representative said they had to start from somewhere to save the young people from the direction they were going.
“The first thing was to get the children from leaving the campus for lunch. That came about as a result from many complaints from the public by some unwarranted behaviour by some leaving the campus, along with reports made by the Truancy Officers which we put in place during last four years, a suggestion of bringing student on campus for lunch somehow. We went about that by having meetings with all the stakeholders and the school came up with time table and the architect designed the tents so students can eat in a shift system put in place and with vendors on stream to take them off the streets. We felt one student is worth it. And we had to meet opening of school in September and was a hectic time to get all the cafeteria tent done and classrooms refurbished."
Hon. Fahie said it was during the time that most of the work was being completed that election came and he was removed from office but the plans were still there to be completed.
“It was my understanding the projects were stopped for a little while, hence creating the delay for the different aspects of the master plan but is the same architect, same contract that continued to allow this to happen so quickly because it was already planned.”
Another area of work that was part of the plan, he said was repairing of the roof of the building that is closest to the Sunday Morning Well where there were concerns about mold.
Meanwhile, Hon. Fahie made it clear that he is not looking political mileage “by saying what people may not want to hear” but that “what is cannot be changed”.
“So for me I will not get into political back and forth for it, I will just say congratulations that the work that was started was completed in the best interest of all.”
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