Leonald Conner School repair agreements made

PHILIPSBURG–The much-needed repairs to Leonald Connor Primary School in Cay Bay will finally take place, as the Ministry of Education and contractors signed agreements on Monday.

Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Affairs Silveria Jacobs, HEMCO NV Managing Director Henry Frederick and NV GEBE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenrick Chittick signed the agreements making it possible for work to begin. The repairs are scheduled to take place for the next four weeks.

Jacobs met with Chittick later on Monday to finalise the arrangements pertaining to the financial agreement to facilitate the repairs. GEBE had approved a donation to the school to cover the amount needed to carry out the repairs, in fulfilling its tasks as a “Good Corporate Citizen.”

Jacobs remains thankful on behalf of the students, teachers, management and parents that this gesture has been honoured by the GEBE management, approved by the Supervisory Board and the shareholder represented by the Council of Ministers. She extended sincere gratitude to the management and staff for their cooperation in making this possible.

The school was closed on Novembers 5 after teachers walked off from the job and demanded that the Education Minister do something about the unsafe environment at the school.

The Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI commissioned an independent study to be carried out to ascertain the levels of toxic gases being emitted into the environment by all industries operating in the Cay Bay area and to ascertain what levels were affecting the population, including the staff and pupils at Leonald Conner School who had been experiencing the problem with alarming frequency.

It became clear over the past months that an emergency solution was needed to deal with the health challenges being experienced by staff and pupils of the school.

Government started to take several steps to deal with this situation, but all these steps required several weeks to come to fruition. The school was thoroughly cleaned and the authorities were convinced that the worst was over, but the smell of gases was once again too much to bear at the school on November 5.

Meanwhile, the pupils have been divided into different groups among several schools in other locations.

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/63291-leonald-conner-school-repair-agreements-made

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