Remarks by the Minister of Public Works, Hon. Craig Cannonier, JP, MP
I am very pleased to join the Minister of Education the Hon. Wayne Scott, JP, MP at Elliot School today to announce that significant progress has been made towards the completion of the 2016 Summer School’s Maintenance Project.
All scheduled works will have been completed prior to the start of the school year and all school buildings ready to receive our students for the 2016/2017 School Year.
To minimize disruption to schools and for health and safety reasons major maintenance work is always planned for school holidays, with the summer being the longest holiday. This summer’s works began in April with our Building’s Section team and the Facilities Management team from the Ministry of Education inspecting and identifying maintenance and repair issues for each of the 30 schools. The scope of works for each school was then drawn up and agreed with the Ministry of Education with the works starting as soon as the summer holidays began.
This year’s works have involved seven work units comprising of over one hundred and twenty (120) staff including HVAC technicians, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, masons and painters.
In addition to ministry staff, local companies were contracted to undertake and complete specific projects to assist in getting the schools ready prior to the start of new school year.
Regarding the painting of schools, the scope of work comprised of both internal and external painting to the following schools:
- Elliot Primary School;
- Purvis Primary School;
- St. David’s Primary School;
- Victor Scott Primary School;
- Devonshire Pre School;
- and Warwick Pre School.
These works were contracted out to the private sector for a total cost of Six Hundred and Twenty Three Thousand Dollars ($623,000).
In addition, in-house teams have painted West End Primary School entirely and conducted touch-up painting within in the remaining schools.
Also during the summer, the following schools have had sanding and/or refinishing work carried out on their gyms' wooden floors:
- Elliot Primary School;
- Purvis Primary School;
- Victor Scott Primary School;
- and West End Primary.
Other works ranged from an item as small as replacing a washer on a leaking tap to complete bathroom refurbishments. In total we expect to have spent some Two Million Dollars on school works this year.
The goal of the Summer Schools Maintenance Project is to ensure that all the schools are in good working order and ready for the new school year. I am happy to declare that considerable progress has been made and I can assure you the work will be completed on time.
This has been a major joint effort between the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Education and reflects well on Government Ministries working together to get the job done!
I would like to take this opportunity to commend the staff of the Buildings Section and the facilities team at the Ministry of Education, the contractors and employees, all of whom have played their part in getting the schools ready.