Sod turned, way paved for
construction at Sundial
~ Teachers still have concerns ~
PHILIPSBURG--As construction of new facilities at Sundial School gets off the ground, teachers and school Principal Mireille Peterson-Regales still have reservations about the relocation of the school board’s office to the campus and are still concerned about inadequate parking facilities.
Officials turned the sod to officially mark the start of construction early Monday. The school board’s new offices, a new care unit and library will be built and the gym will be renovated.
The project is linked to the ongoing innovations in education in the Preparatory Secondary Vocational Education (PSVE) system and is expected to be completed within eight months.
Education Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams welcomed the start of the project and noted that while there probably would be some inconveniences, these would lead to improvements at the school. Sundial is the first school at which such construction has started. A similar groundbreaking ceremony is planned for Milton Peters College (MPC) today, Tuesday, September 25.
Peterson-Regales said she and the teachers still had reservations about the project. She said the school would lose about 15 parking spaces with a section of the parking lot cordoned off to ensure safety on the construction site.
School Board for Secondary Education SVOBE Executive Director Joseph Rogers said a second gate at the school would be reopened to create additional parking space for teachers, but Regales said only about eight vehicles could be accommodated in that area. She said teachers would also be able to park in front of the guard hut at the school.
Teachers were also concerned about the relocation of SVOBE’s office to the school and are still of the opinion that the space should be used to accommodate the school’s growing student population. The school currently has 398 students, 48 more than last year.
Rogers said he had explained the situation to the teachers last week after they complained about the board’s failure to communicate with them about plans for construction at the Sundial premises.
The construction work is being executed by Bureau for Educational Research, Policy, Planning and Innovations (BERPPI) and Task Manager Angela Dekker is responsible for implementation.
The project is being financed by USONA and SVOBE at a total cost of NAf. 1,235,000.
