The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jefferey Lloyd yesterday suggested “adjustments” will be made to allocations in his ministry’s budget to address repairs needed at the Anatol Rodgers and Huntley P Christie high schools after separate fires earlier this month.

In an interview with reporters outside of Cabinet yesterday, Mr Lloyd, referring to the repairs as a priority, said the Ministry of Education must work to ensure that both schools are repaired and made ready to receive students in a timely manner.

The South Beach MP said the ministry was awaiting the official police report on the Anatol Rodgers fire, as it is suspected the fire was a result of arson.

According to an initial police report, officers discovered that a person or persons may have set fire to the school’s wood work room and attempted to set fire to the school’s tuck shop on Sunday, June 16.

No other buildings were damaged, police said, adding arson was the suspected cause.

Mr Lloyd said yesterday officials intend to have the school ready by September.

As for the damage caused by fire at Huntley P Christie School in Andros, Mr Lloyd said it has been determined that an entire block at the school will have to be reconstructed. He maintained that while plans call for repairs to get underway this summer, there is some doubt the repairs can be carried out over the summer period.

In a press release issued last Thursday, the Ministry of Education said the school in Nicholls Town sustained fire damage to four classrooms on Wednesday June 12. The statement noted: “The Ministry of Education has commenced an investigation into the cause of the fire, which severely damaged the school’s mathematics block, and will be making a public statement when that investigation concludes.”

Mr Lloyd yesterday said given the status of damage sustained, it is viewed as a “challenge” to have the area completely repaired by the start 2019/2020 school year.

When asked what these scenarios meant for his ministry in the coming months, Mr Lloyd said: “…As I said earlier, this kind of causes us to readjust our summer budget. You know, when you are talking about fires you are talking about a composite of concerns and that really is a challenge for us. But I have no difficulty expecting that school would be ready for September, and in terms of the school in North Andros, that particular building, I believe that that is going to take a little bit longer than the three months that we have.”

He continued: “We will just make the adjustments, we have space, we’ll make the adjustment. The adjustment can be easily made. For instance, the fire occurred and the school was still having exams. We made the adjustments and put the students in a different part of the school. That is not a problem.

“Of course it is the difficulty when you have to make that adjustment because it takes the students out of the normal course of their learning experiences.”

Meanwhile, when asked about the status of the ministry’s negotiations with the Bahamas Union of Teachers, Mr Lloyd insisted that while current talks are going well, the reality that funds are limited could affect talks moving forward.

Addressing the union’s recent calls for a salary increase, he said: “That is above my pay-grade. I am the minister of education not the minister of finance, you know, honourable deputy prime minister along with his team at the Ministry of Finance, to determine what it is that we can afford. Obviously, we can only provide what we can afford.”

Mr Lloyd said while particular positions are taken at the beginning of a negation period, the process often ends in some give and take.

“Mr Anderson, our deputy director, is our team leader along with Mr Arlington Miller, and I am advised that the negotiations are going very, very well. Now of course, they don’t deal with the money issue, it has to come from the Ministry of Finance and I am sure that will be a little bit more challenging in terms of the negotiations. But I believe the union and the ministry are committed to the same thing, and that is an excellent education enterprise,” Mr Lloyd concluded.