Change of location but classes continue at St Rose’s  

All pupils of St Rose’s Girls RC from Wednesday, January 10 were having daily classes after several months of some pupils being at the neighbouring Rosary Boys’ RC.

Standard One and Two were on rotation using the pan room while Standard Three was in the library and Standard Four housed at the reading room. The St Rose’s students had to be relocated after a building at the school was declared unsafe February 2023. The Infants’ and Standard Five classes were in the northern wing of St Rose’s which was safe.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Catholic Education Board of Management Sharon Mangroo said, “We have three schools now in use. The Standards Two and Four are at St Theresa’s, the Standards Three and One I believe are in Rosary Boys’ in the same compound and the rest of the classes are in at the girls’ school in a building that has been cleared for use.”

A shuttle service is in effect for the pupils and teachers to be transported from St Rose’s Henry Street to St Theresa’s, Woodbrook. After a hiccup with the service on Tuesday, January 9 which left parents fuming, the transport system for 76 pupils worked the next day.

Meanwhile, structural concerns caused students at Poole RC school, Naparima-Mayaro Road, to be accommodated at the St Therese RC school. The chief designs engineer’s office of the Ministry of Works and Transport in July 2019 recommended the school be demolished because of structural defects which prevented it from meeting code requirements.

Mangroo said both Poole and St Therese have small school populations of less than 200, and St Therese can accommodate up to 250. St Therese has its own issues and the MoE was addressing the electrical system.

Mangroo added, “The upper floor of some of the floorboards are termite ridden. Fr Lindsey John, the parish priest has undertaken to do the assessment and remove the termite ridden floorboards and replace them with lumber. We are using the resources of the parish to do so.”

Security

Commenting on security at schools she mentioned breaks-ins at St Francis Erin RC and St Bridget’s Siparia last year. Added to these are schools at Todd’s Road, Caparo and La Brea. Mangroo said the Ministry contracts the National Maintenance Training and Security Company Ltd (MTS) for security at schools and some smaller companies were also used.

“We will be following up with the Ministry of Education for the security arrangements for the schools that have been broken into,” she said.

Photo by 2y.kang on Unsplash