Friday, November 27, 2009

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Minister promises R.M. Bailey redevelopment By JASMIN BONIMY ~ Guardian Staff Reporter ~ jasmin@nasguard.com: Amid reports of a protest at R. M. Bailey Senior High School that never transpired yesterday, education officials have promised that a three-year development plan will completely restructure the entire campus, including the gym that was almost completely destroyed by fire six years ago. Calls to several media houses, including The Nassau Guardian yesterday morning indicated that students planned to voice their concerns about the failure of the education ministry to rebuild the gym since the blaze in 2003. The protest was planned for yesterday morning as outgoing Minister of Education Carl Bethel visited the school for a farewell tour. While the protest never took place, the school's administration did admit they were aware of concerns involving the reconstruction of the gym that sits at the center of the school's Robinson Road campus. When The Guardian visited the partially destroyed gym yesterday, a teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to talk to the press, said the school's basketball team still practiced in the gym that has rusted iron support beams dangling from the ceiling. During his address to hundreds of students at a special assembly held in his honor at R. M. Bailey yesterday, Bethel said the education ministry has developed a three-year plan to address all structural issues at the public school. "I want to let you know students that as a part of this ongoing reform that we have started, particularly you tenth and eleventh graders can look forward to seeing, next summer, the implementation of a three-year development plan for this campus. All of these tin buildings will be taken down over the next three years," said Bethel amid a huge cheer from the crowd of students. Bethel, who declined to elaborate on the plan or say how much it would cost, said the plan has been in the works for the past month. "I assure you and your long suffering teachers that public works was here a month ago," said Bethel. "They had a plan six months ago and I told them it was not good enough and they came back, consulted and we have proper measurements. When we roll out starting next summer, I assure you, you will begin to see the rewards for your labors. "I am certain that as we roll out the three-year development plan, I told them straight off the top do not cut any trees. So when we develop this beautiful historic campus, we will preserve its beautiful historic atmosphere. But at the end you will see a world-class set of facilities here at R.M. Bailey designed to meet the needs of every student in a meaningful way." District Superintendent of the Southeastern District Willard Barr said that while officials have always intended to rebuild the gym over the past six years, tough economic times have prevented the move. "We've wanted to work on this gym for some time now and I think what happened is as we entered the recession, that retarded that progress," he said. Barr added that since that time, the three-year plan was developed further delaying the reconstruction of the gym. "Since that was put on the back burner there were many philosophies and concepts on where R. M. Bailey should go as far as education is concerned and finally we decided on a career academy," he said. "So we are going to have to look at that now. We have to look at the whole process of reconfiguring R.M. Bailey and that is to remove a lot of these existing buildings and to reconstruct. It's part of the bigger picture. They will be proud of this whole work when it is completed." Tuesday, November 24, 2009