Minister cites importance of review process in school repairs

FERRIS, Westmoreland — The importance of speed and having a review process are among the lessons education minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon is taking from the less-than-smooth process of repairing more than 300 schools damaged by last year’s Hurricane Melissa. “With our contractors, you have to have multiple entities that are reviewing. There are multiple stages of review. I think we’ve also learned how to do it quicker. Because, remember, it’s 300 contracts with 300 different scopes of work. And you’re going to need to have the quantity surveyors doing their work for 300 different contracts. It’s a lot, but I do think that going through this, it will make it much easier as we’re doing projects going forward because we’re not going to be in a position to do this many [schools] again. And so we’ve really built that muscle memory to be able to do this better going forward,” stated Morris Dixon, who also spoke about steps taken to ensure buildings can cope better with future storms. The minister was responding to queries from the Jamaica Observer while fielding questions from the media at Ferris Primary School in Westmoreland following a tour of schools in the parish on Wednesday. The other institutions visited were Maud McLeod High and Beaufort Primary schools, both located in Darliston. Describing the undertaking as unprecedented, Morris Dixon again conceded that fixing the damage left by last October’s Hurricane Melissa had been a challenge. “It was a big undertaking; it’s something that we’ve never done in our history, you know, this kind of scale of repair of our schools and then doing it in terms of resilience. That is a big task, a very difficult task, under very difficult conditions. There were areas that didn’t work as well as we wanted, and then some things went really smoothly,” she said. “It was a mixed bag but the team at NET (National Education Trust) has been very focused on reviewing what’s out there, the contracts, and making sure things are happening. The regions have also been very much a part of it. With all of us working together, I think we’ve been able to iron out a lot of kinks. There were a lot of kinks in the beginning, as you would have in any kind of emergency situation like this, but I think we’ve been able to iron them out,” the minister added. Meanwhile, as the nation anticipates the reopening of schools for the new term, Morris Dixon assured that all institutions will open next week. “Based on the report from the regions, every school will be open on Monday. As I said, not all the repairs will be done, but they’ve put in contingency plans. There are some schools that may be on rotation, which is like a shift system. Others will be using tents, some will be using timber structures,” she explained.

Buildings to the back and right that had new roofs installed at Ferris Primary School in Westmoreland. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

While she could not immediately provide the exact number of schools still utilising tents and board structures, she indicated that the targeted time frame to get them off these temporary settings is varied. “I have schools that need a complete rebuild of some parts of the school. That’s not going to finish this year in some cases; it goes into next year. I have schools where the contractor said, ‘September, end of September, we’ll be finished completely.’ Others, it’s mid-October. So it really depends on the scope of work for the schools. And the schools have been given the timelines within which the work will be finished,” stated Morris Dixon. At Ferris Primary, Principal Tracie Campbell told the Observer that repair work started in February and they are now 98 per cent ready for orientation on September 7, with classes commencing two days later. Repairs were completed on the roofs of two buildings and a multi-purpose container. However, work remains to be done on the administrative block, even though the roof remains intact. “I think we could have finished a while ago. However, since I’m not particularly in that field, I’m not privy to some of the information as to why it would have taken so long. What I do know though is that some of the repairs were not done. They were explaining that it was not in their contract to have it done. Nonetheless, the building officer came, I think it was about last Friday, and so they had other plans as to how to go ahead with fixing or doing the repairs on the remainder of the school,” stated Campbell. Despite the delays, she expressed satisfaction with the progress. “I remember when I came first after Melissa and I cried, Minister, because I would have said to myself, ‘It’s like no home, no school’. And to see that we are here and we are coming back… to see my teachers taking pride in fixing up, it’s like a new beginning. It’s a new spark for us. And parents would come in — even last week, parents came — to repaint, to help with the painting,” said Campbell.