With days to go before the start of the new semester, faculty and staff at EP Roberts Primary School are resigned to the fact that they will face another school year working under difficult conditions.
The school board has been behind the Ministry of Works and Education for over two years, insisting on the completion of the much needed ceiling, drainage and structural repairs, The Tribune was told.
However Sydney Butler, chairman of the school board and PTA president, said that the despite the ministry's promises to repair the school, nothing is being done.
He added that as he told Education Minister Alfred Sears, he thinks that because the school is in the "ghetto" and is made up of "60 per cent of Haitian Bahamian students," they are getting "ghetto treatment."
According to a June 9 Tribune article, $3 million was allocated for expansion and refurbishment of the school in 2003-2004.
However, Mr Butler said, "the school is in a condition where it's not fit for teachers or students to come back in September. We've been to the Ministry, sent letters and have done everything we could do." According to Mr Butler, he spoke with Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin last Tuesday, and she agreed to meet him at the school last Friday. But, he said, she never showed up and he lost a day's pay at work.
"Mrs Martin left a message saying that she had to go to Miami, and that she would meet with me today to discuss the matter, but did not show up again today."
Mr Butler noted that with yesterday's heavy rain, certain classes will have pools of water because it would have settled overnight.
He told The Tribune that because of the water coming through the cracked ceilings, installing the school's new computers for all the upper grade levels has been delayed.
"The outlets were put in, but I was told that they can't install the computers until repairs are complete.
"I have suggested to the Ministry many times before in a meeting to put a roof over our flat roof, like what they had to do at Uriah McPhee Primary which had the same problem.
"After heavy rain, one side of the school is underwater. Areas leading to the school from the street level are underwater, around the grade three and four areas are a mess."
According to Mr Butler, most students have to take off their shoes to avoid the water just to get to school. "All I've asked the ministry to do is simply come and put drainage at these three points, which would eliminate flooding problems around the school's premises," he said.
Despite complaints by faculty and staff at the school, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education Creswell Sturrup maintains that contractors have been onsite at E P Roberts for the summer where "matters are being addressed."
By: REUBEN SHEARER, The Tribune
