The subject of the previously approved plans not being used in the rebuilding of the Elmore Stoutt has been the topic of conversation among public forums within the past weeks, with both former and present legislators weighing in on the matter, as well as residents.
In a recent Facebook post former Education Minister Myron E Walwyn once again took to social media and encouraged law makers to do what is in the best interest of tax payers by revisiting previously approved plans for the complete rebuilding of the Elmore Stoutt High School.
Walwyn while showing clear visuals of the previously approved plans said, “Education is the axis upon which everything else in a country turns. The delivery of that service to our young people in particular requires careful and deliberate thought. We will only have one chance to re-develop ESHS in a manner that provides the best learning environment for our children. Let us put down the politics and deliver something that we can be proud of. The plan on the top is the plan that was approved by the Caribbean Development Bank in 2017 which included a state of the art auditorium/ gymnasium/ cafeteria, state of the art science labs etc, classrooms outfitted with smart boards and other technological learning devices, teachers’ lounge, training rooms etc. The 13M education reform intervention also included a new primary school for BFEC in Virgin Gorda (that plan also exist). The one below is the new plan that was developed.
He closed by saying, “I humbly suggest that we take another look at what we are about to do. Let us incorporate the best of both plans if necessary but deliver something that would serve the needs of our community for the next three decades.”
This is not the first time Walwyn has shared his thoughts, he previously penned, “We must get to the point of political maturity where we build on work that was done by previous governments. We must choose saving tax payers resources over political expediency. A comprehensive plan for the redevelopment of ESHS was done by the NDP way before the hurricanes of 2017.
As you will see from the article below, a loan facility of over 9 million was approved by the Caribbean Development Bank to assist with this in 2017. CDB would have been very much involved in the project even to point of doing capacity building for educators. Let’s start to think country and not self.
Resurrect the existing plans and make the requisite amendments, complete the process with the CDB loan and let’s build an institution that could properly serve the needs of our children just as was intended by our government. Time to drop the old politics! Haven’t we learnt anything from the Commission of Inquiry?”
Leader of the Opposition Hon. Marlon A Penn also spoke publically on the matter stating, “Government wasting taxpayers’ money with the ESHS redevelopment plans since a solid plan already exist.”
Penn said, “What I would say is that government is a continuum and the monies that we spend in government are the people’s funds and I think we need to be a bit more responsible, particularly with the people’s funds. Now we’re talking about moving forward with major projects like this, that’s why it’s important to have a national strategy like this in this country going forward. And for the government now three years after, a fourth budget, to now talk about having a discussion about developing a plan, when there were plans that were done years ago.”
He added, “Monies were already allocated to develop these plans, funding was already allocated from the CDB to fund these plans. If there needs to be adjustments/modifications, then we do that. We can’t just continue to scrub hard the plans that are developed for this country, from the hard earned tax payers’ money and continue to move on in this direction. We can’t allow our country to throw away money when money is so scarce in these times.”
The Opposition legislator believes the extensive measures taken to get the previous plan to the approval stage should have been noted and used as a foundation to build on the work that was already done.
He said, “At the end of the day it is the government. But the government also has to act responsibly in terms of the resources, especially when you have limited financial resources as a country and look at how can we for the best interest of the country, move forward in the development of the infrastructure of this country. There is only so much you can do in terms of the development of the high school and the infrastructure and a lot of those things we’re exhausted in the discussions and the development that was done not just from the Ministry of Education, but from the redevelopment of the country’s point of view.”
“We did extensive work prior to and after the hurricanes about redeveloping our infrastructure and redeveloping our economy and those discussions were done publicly with the input of the public. So it wasn’t that the former government did these things in a vacuum, they were done with the input of the public. We went from Anegada to Jost Van Dyke discussing these plans and these ideas with the public and persons agreed or expressed their opinions on the plans. So this is something that was done from the point of view of the public and the people,” Penn further explained.
In response Minister of Education Dr. Hon. Natalio D. Wheatley has labeled the plans which were created for the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School under the National Democratic Party (NDP) government as inadequate as it lacked the necessary resilience needed in the BVI post hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Wheatley 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
Wheatley also stated, “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.
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.”
The question remains which plan should be used for the redevelopment of the Elmore Stoutt High School and is the cost to tax payers being considered?
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