Ground breaking at school as Ministry suggests it will help
Brown’s Town High School, St Ann, is finally to get its multi-purpose auditorium. Ground was broken Thursday, November 13, for the construction of the auditorium, expected to cost $23 million. It is expected to be ready by June next year, according to principal Johnallson Feraria.
The school has been struggling for space through its evolution that has seen it expand its programme and its population overshoot capacity. Only recently the school completed a block of classrooms to help cut the pressure on space. The auditorium that would be used for classes, games, sport, culture and large assembly is the latest effort by the school community to help itself.
At a ground breaking ceremony Thursday, November 13, Mr Feraria, said preliminary construction work on the auditorium is expected to start within the next few weeks and it is expected that it should be ready for occupation when the 2014/15 school leaving exercise is held next June. Cost is set at $22.9 million.
He pointed out that money will be provided through fund-raising ventures staged by the school, the Parent-Teacher Association, the Past Students’ Association, members of the community and other donors.
Mr. Feraria said the auditorium will be constructed at the site which currently accommodates the school’s basketball and netball courts, and that space will be allocated for those facilities inside the new complex.
On Thursday, Education Minister, Rev. Ronald Thwaites, participated in the ground breaking ceremony and told the staff and students that the event was a special occasion. “It’s all for you…We want to see you have the best possible facilities for your education,” the Minister said.
According to JIS, Rev. Mr Thwaites said he was aware of the difficult circumstances in which Brown’s Town High operated, but was heartened by the innovations which have been applied in the building of a new block of classroom, which was opened recently. “I am very impressed, because there is a spirit of boldness that is alive in this place …It is incarnated in your principal and no doubt in your Board. What you have done is to go ahead with the things that are needed for your school and you have turned your hand and your have made many good fashions,” the Minister said.
“The Ministry of Education didn’t contribute anything to (the new classroom block), which has made life and education so much better here at Brown’s Town High. It was done by your community of care, headed by your chairman, by your principal, by your Board and by the benefactors of this place,” he added.
Rev. Thwaites is also committing that the Ministry will be making a significant financial contribution towards the auditorium’s construction.
Brown’s Town High, which is currently run on a shift system, has a student population of 2, 244 and an academic staff complement of 96.
-30-
