New school for Palo Seco students

Students of the partially destroyed Palo Seco Government Secondary School are expected to occupy several spanking new iron and steel structures for the August 30 start of the new school term. The structures, which are expected to cost some $20 million, are being built on the same site of the former school building and will be equipped with classrooms, administration offices, a multi-media centre, and a library. They are expected to be able to accommodate the school’s population of some 500 students. Education Minister, Senator Hazel Manning, was given the assurance by architect, Len Holder, and contractor, Thomas Chinnona, during a tour of the construction site at Palo Seco on Thursday.

“I am really very happy with what I am seeing here at Palo Seco. I am told they are on schedule and that things are working very well,” she said. Manning added, “I have been told that members of the community are quite happy and a number of them have been working on the site, and the students are very eager to come back in school in August.” Asked to comment on the wage negotiation agreement with the teacher’s union and the Chief Personnel Officer, Manning expressed satisfaction at the agreement saying she was “happy” for the teachers.

“I am very happy for them, I congratulate them, they have done quite well, now we get back down to the hard work, lots of work to come on stream come August,” she said. Students at the burnt-out school had received temporary accommodations at the Siparia Senior Comprehensive School (SSCS), after an April 7 fire of unknown origin swept through the school, destroying the main class building and a number of wooden structures which housed the school’s administration and other offices.