Parents continue protest for new Princes Town school

Parents of students attending Princes Town Presbyterian Primary Schools No.1 and No.2 (Pres 1 and Pres 2) protested outside the Pres 2 building yesterday morning, claiming that the Board is keeping back the establishment of a temporary prefabricated building to house their children until a new school could be built. The Board, on the other hand, said again that it is not against the building of a temporary prefabricated building to relieve the children of the shift system, but based on reports in relation to the Pres 1 building, an entirely new school is not necessary.

Pres 1 students have been attending school at the Pres 2 building since July after a wall at the Pres 1 building fell.

According to Nola Ramjohn-Karim, President of the Pres 1 Parents Teachers Association, the Ministry of Education already agreed to build a prefabricated structure and just needs “approval” from the Board. Asked why she thinks the Board is delaying approval, she said, “we would love to know.” Chairman of the Presbyterian Primary School Board, Carlyle Mulchan, denied the claim, saying that he is not against the building of a temporary prefabricated school as long as it could house all of the students. Mulchan said the school just needs 15 classes built to house some 300 of its 530 students.

The rest, he said, could continue to be schooled at the Pres 2 building.

“We have land in the back of the school (Pres 1),” said Mulchan. “If the Ministry wants to come and build a prefabricated building there, then it can do so.” The issue of contention, however, seems to be over the Pres 1 PTA’s insistence that Pres 1 needs an entirely new school in the long term.

Mulchan says a new school is not necessary.

Ramj ohn-Ka r im spoke of the conditions of the 60-year-old school.

“We spoke to (Education) Minister (Anthony) Garcia ourselves - myself and another parent - and he (Garcia) said that the Ministry would not consider refurbishing the school.” Ramjohn-Karim said that the Ministry’s position was based on a report produced by the Ministry of Works that said the Pres 1 building was “unfit for refurbishing.” “I know people over 50 years old who went to Pres 1,” Ramjohn-Karim said, “They tell me that since then, drains have been passing through two of the classrooms.” Mulchan, on the other hand, denied the claim that the school is not refurbishable, citing four other reports that, he claims, say otherwise.

“That Ministry of Works report is a single page document that makes a blanket statement,” said Mulchan. “It does not identify that Pres 1 is made of three separate buildings. How could you say all three buildings need demolishing?” Mulchan said the “integrity of the structure” of the first of the three buildings “was not compromised.” The Presbyterian Primary School Board is scheduled to meet with the Ministry of Education to discuss the way forward for the two schools in the upcoming weeks. Mulchan said that the Board, for that meeting, is preparing a proposal for shortterm solutions to the shift system as well as long term plans for the Pres 1 school.