The plans which were created for the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School under the National Democratic Party (NDP) government has been labeled as inadequate as it lacked the necessary resilience needed in the BVI post hurricanes Irma and Maria.
This was the claim made by Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Dr. Natalio Wheatley during a virtual stakeholder meeting which was held on Thursday January 19 for the redevelopment of the high school.
He said, “We had looked towards the redevelopment of the rest of the ESHS Campus. I was advised by Ms Lorna Stevens who is the project officer in the Ministry of Education and the go to person for all things of this nature, that the existing plans that were there for the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School were not adequate because of course they didn’t properly consider Hurricane Irma which destroyed most of the high school campus and it was best to start with a clean slate.”
NDP’s school plan was considered and assessed
Dr. Wheatley said that his government did consider and assess the existing plans for the school which were developed under the NDP Administration.
However, he said it was concluded that the plans were just not adequate enough for the work that needs to be done for the redevelopment of the institution.
“Recently, persons have put information in the public to suggest that there were detailed plans concerning the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School. So I asked for those plans to be assessed again in light of the information that has come to light. And again, we have come to the same conclusion of those plans,” he stated.
“There was one building as well as two prefabricated buildings in those plans. When I evaluated the prefabricated buildings and we considered what hurricanes Irma and Maria did to us here in the Virgin Islands, we decided not to go with those three fabricated buildings because of course we know what the hurricanes would do to them, so those were not appropriate to be considered,” Dr. Wheatley further explained.
Too much glass for the one detailed building
The Deputy Premier also spoke on the design of the auditorium building which was circulated across social media recently, which depicted a structure with lots of glass windows.
He said the design of that building was not well suited for the plan envisioned by his government, which is to build a school that is resilient against future natural disasters.
“We also have another building and this is the only building that had detailed schematics being submitted to Town and Country Planning. This building was for an auditorium and a cafeteria. I must say to you that we are not at the phase of the project right now where we are considering an auditorium and a cafeteria. That’s not the focus of these buildings that we’re building right now,” he said.
“And in addition to that, anyone who would remember those designs, which was shortly shared publicly, revealed a building with quite a bit of what they call glazing, and to the layperson they would understand glazing to mean there’s quite a lot of glass. The auditorium and cafeteria contained quite a lot of glass. And it was our assessment that it would not have been the best option to go forward with designs full of glass considering what took place with hurricanes or Irma and Maria,” Dr. Wheatley added.
The minister’s comment comes after Opposition Leader Marlon Penn recently expressed that he believes that the Andrew Fahie Administration is wasting taxpayers’ money by opting to start from scratch and not utilize the NDP’s plan for the school.
Penn said the NDP’s redevelopment plan for the school was a sound plan which previously went through a thorough process, adding that it was even approved and funded by the Caribbean Development Bank.