The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THERE will likely be a slight delay for students to start classes at Stephen Dillet Primary School by one week as officials await the arrival of new furniture and other equipment, Education Minister Jeffrey Lloyd said yesterday.

However, delayed payments for contractors renovating the school won't affect the timeline of the school's opening for the fall semester.

The school, which has had problems for years, is undergoing a complete overhaul.

The Tribune understands that workers have been upset about delayed payments and have threatened to walk off the job.

Mr Lloyd, a source claimed last week, was annoyed by the delayed payments that, among other things, forced the contractor to pay for supplies out of his own pocket.

Nonetheless, the education minister who toured the school with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday said the "school will be ready."

"We've just been advised by the contractor that there might be a delay for one week for the students to arrive and that is primarily not because the school will not itself be finished in terms of construction work, but rather because there is new furniture, supplies that will be installed to supplement some older equipment that will be returned," he said.

"We expect teachers to return on September 4 when school ordinarily would open and then the students would come the following week, September 11."

Mr Lloyd, who has said such schools as Stephen Dillet and Carlton Francis Primary fail to meet the requirements of staff and students, however, Stephen Dillet has been transformed.

"We've compartmentalised and segmented these spaces to allow more efficient delivery of information with 29 classrooms in addition to administrative offices, additional restrooms, multimedia areas, musical rooms, etc," he said. "In addition, we are also going to have two pre-school classrooms that will accommodate 40 students. The space is going to be 100 per cent Wi-Fi to facilitate the government's intention to introduce iPads to pre-school students. We will have an expanded lunch pavilion area and will introduce a new 'tuck shop' area."

Dr Minnis, who reminisced about selling lunch alongside his mother at the school when he was younger, toured the school yesterday while numerous men worked, leaving no area untouched.

The school, which is similar to Uriah McPhee Primary School on Kemp Road, is the only one of the two experiencing such extensive renovations this year, with Uriah expected to be similarly renovated at another time.

The upgrades to Stephen Dillet will cost about $4 million, Mr Lloyd said. He has said repairs to schools in the country will easily exceed $8m.

"I'm happy there's a Bahamian main contractor and great deal of Bahamian subcontractors who are employed and will finish this project in record time. It would ordinarily take six to seven months, but will happen in four months," he said.

The school has 821 students.

"We will build more schools and classrooms to deal with overpopulation in the classrooms," Mr Lloyd said. "In many cases, infrastructure is failing, is old and needs to be replaced."