The health and safety standards provided by the St Ann’s Bay Primary School to its students were upgraded with the completion of a new and modern sanitation block and perimeter fence.
The official opening ceremony was held on the school campus, located on 10 Church Street, St Ann’s Bay, St Ann, on Thursday. It was attended by students, teachers, staff at the school, parents and other school stakeholders.
The sanitation block was constructed by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), while the perimeter fencing was completed by efforts of the school body, including the school, the board of management, parents/teachers association (PTA), parents and the community.
The opening ceremony began with invocation by pastor Pilbert Whynn, followed by welcome by vice principal, Chelsea Simpson. The chairperson for the afternoon’s ceremony was vice principal, Donna Gooden.
In his greetings, principal of the St Ann’s Bay Primary School, Trevor Cole gave a brief background to the implementation of the new sanitation block and the perimeter fence.
“Having done a needs-assessment of the school some years ago, it was revealed that it was necessary for us to address safety and security issues along with additional sanitary convenience for such a large population of over 1,200 students,” he explained to those gathered at the opening ceremony.
In addition too, Mr Cole told the North Coast Times following the ceremony that, there were also challenges with the old bathroom facility.
“We engaged JSIF and they responded and today, we are quite excited to have a new bathroom facility for our children that they appreciate and they are very excited as you can see… We are grateful for this initiative today,” Mr Cole said.
He told the audience at the ceremony that the new contemporary sanitation block was designed with eight water closets, one urinal trough, two showers and two lavatory basins. The bathrooms are laid with modern ceramic and mosaic floor and wall tiles.
“Interestingly, it was also developed with a wheelchair ramp and specially designed compartments to facilitate students who may have challenges with mobility,” Mr Cole stressed.
The cost to undertake the construction of the facility was not made known.
With the construction of the perimeter fencing, Mr Cole pointed out that he hoped it would deter trespassing, limit access to non-authorized points and allow persons to be observed and screened properly before entering the school gates. He added that the school had not experienced any incidents of break-ins or trespassing since the erection of the perimeter fencing.
In his greetings, chairman of the board of management, Dalas Dickenson, said he was “very happy” that JSIF took on the project and lauded them for completing the bathroom facility in eight weeks, as they had initially promised.
In the meantime, Mr Dickenson urged the students to take care of the new bathroom facilities provided to them.
PTA president, Standford Davis described the new sanitation block as a “welcomed initiative for which we are very grateful for.”
For her part, senior education officer for Region three in the ministry of education, Karlene Segree said that St Ann’s Bay Primary School has met the seventh objective of the ministry’s strategic objective which is to “maximize the percentage of Jamaican schools that provide a safe, secure and healthy physical, emotional and spiritual environment.”
The afternoon’s programme also included performances from various students, including Shemoya Dinnald, Tyrell James and the school choir.
Following the vote of thanks by student Casandra Davy, the official opening and ribbon cutting of the sanitation block and perimeter fence took place.
