Cay Hill:--- Some five hundred students and their parents will be shuttled to the Asha Stevens Christian Hillside School in Cay Hill when schools re-open on Monday. Principal of the new school Asha Stevens and members of the Public Works department told reporters on Friday that there will be some traffic changes in the area to accommodate the students and parents that will be visiting the new school next week.
Tatiana Arrindell, public relations officer of VROMI told reporters that parents are asked to either drop off their children at the St. Peters location before 7:15am in the morning so that they can be taken by bus to the school or drop off their children at the newly created parking lot on Welgelegen Road Cay Hill. Arrindell made clear that parents are not allowed to drive up the access road to the school. She said all students and parents that are accompanying their students to school on Monday must park on Welgelegen Road at the parking lot then join the shuttles that will be available to transport the students to and from the location for the month of August. Arrindell said that there will be controllers on site to ensure that all students are safe during the hours they are being transported to and from the school. Tatiana Arrindell is also the President of PTA Board at the Asha Stevens Christian Hillside School.
Another setback for the state of the art school is that GEBE has not yet hooked up water and electricity at the new school. Stevens said that the school has electricity because a meter was installed for the contractors to work but that is not enough to run all the air conditioners. As for water, she said the school has a cistern and they will be using a pump so that there is sufficient water on the premises for the five hundred students that will be attending the English section of the Asha Stevens Hillside Christian School.
Acting Head of New works Projects Guy Gumbs and Ricardo Heyliger could not provide adequate answers to reporters on Friday when asked why government chose to award the contract for the construction of the school to TELISIN construction and gave the contract for the road to MNO Vervat. Gumbs said that there was public tendering and the road contract was given to MNO Vervat who obviously could not meet the deadline they gave government and the management of the school.
Heyliger also confirmed that due to the set back of the road works, GEBE was not able to install the electricity and water meters to the school. "It's because we are dealing with two contractors and MNO Vervat had some delays due to weather conditions." Heyliger could not say when GEBE will install the electricity and water but he said that another projected date for the completion of the parking lot and road is October 27th, 2012.
Stevens said students will be out of school during the month of August at 1:30pm but all students will remain in school until 4:30pm beginning from September 1st. "We will be having our afternoon school program which is compulsory as of September because we want the best out of students."