Govt: Students To Begin Classes At Clearwater
T.N. Tatem students are scheduled to begin classes at Clearwater Middle School on Thursday [Dec 8], with buses to be provided by the Department of Education to transport students to and from Clearwater Middle School in St David’s each day, the Ministry of Education said this evening.
The issues surrounding the condition of the TN Tatem Middle School building have been ongoing; last Monday and Friday it was closed, and the school was also closed again this week.
In a statement this evening, the Ministry said, “Following its press release yesterday reporting of the relocation of students and teachers at TN Tatem School to the Clearwater Middle School, the Ministry of Education is advising the general public of the immediate work that will be carried out at the school during the month of December.
“This work will address the issues detailed in the Report prepared by the Government Safety and Health Coordinator; and the concerns of the school staff.
“This week the Department of Parks will be cleaning the school’s inside courtyard and outside areas around the school building; while the Department of Works will be addressing Air Conditioning and classroom ceiling issues.
Shadow Minister of Education Lovitta Foggo visits T.N. Tatem yesterday:
“It is expected that the deep cleaning of critical areas throughout the school will commence next week Monday, December 12th and will continue for the full week.
“Mold and indoor air quality testing of the entire school building will occur after the deep cleaning process and should take roughly 3 days. The results of the mold and air quality tests will then determine if there is a need for any mold remediation.
“It is anticipated that the results of the air samples and surface samples which have to be sent overseas for evaluation will be available by the latter half of the week of December 29th but this could extend into the first week of January due to the holiday season.
“A similar inspection of all other middle schools will be undertaken on a schedule to be finalized with the Office of the Safety and Health Coordinator.
“As previously advised, T.N. Tatem teachers reported to school today to work on logistics with the school administration; and will report to Clearwater Middle School tomorrow, Wednesday, December 7, for orientation into the school building.
Slideshow showing some of the conditions at the school building:
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“Students are scheduled to begin classes at Clearwater Middle School on Thursday, December 8th. Buses will be provided by the Department of Education to transport students to and from Clearwater Middle School each day. A detailed bus schedule will be provided tomorrow.
“The Ministry would like to thank the BUT, school PTAs, staff and principals of both schools, including Department Officers for the collaborative work done so far in making this plan workable.”
A photo gallery, taken yesterday, is below, and it should be noted that it is, in no way, a comprehensive photo gallery showing the whole building, nor it is specifically structured, it was just a case of us taking some photos of areas we saw during a brief walk around to try and at least provide some visuals of the building.
A 13-page Facilities Inspection Report has already been released which you can read here [PDF], and a 25-page Indoor Air Quality Assessment report has also been released, which you can read here [PDF].
Click to enlarge photos:
Were those tiles removed for the phot or were they like that on the day the kids returned to school ?
If they were all missing before the kids returned to school, then government worker needs to be fired.
I’m sure the Unions will be in agreement !
Did you stop and think for a minute, that maybe the tiles were removed recently when the school was inspected again for the mold and other health violations
Yes I did hence the “If they were all missing before the kids returned to school, then government worker needs to be fired.”
Dreamer
Since you voted UBP/OBA you might want to ask you’re Premier he’s the one always taking Photo Op poses all week with his fake smiles.
Who’s got egg on their face now, sour milk.
Glad that a decision has been made and the children can continue their education and be awarded a nice drive down east.
It’s all good.
Don’t lite the tnt.
Enough.
Poor cleaning Standards. Plain and simple. As stated before Mold does not happen overnight.
It’s interesting how all those that had all kinds of negative comments when story first aired. Now that the pictures speak volumes of words. Nothing said. You can just hear the crickets.
You we have got to be some of the most vicious people in the world when situations arise that don’t effect us but we have the most to say about it. Yet offer absolutely no solutions.
As for me if I were a teacher or I had a child I wouldn’t want to work or have my child learn amid such filth.
My question is did the administrators – Mrs. McMhahon and Ms.Ible make these these requests of staff clear to the powers that be at MOED? Last I checked the tax payers pay a handsome sum to those up top in the MOED. Is it possible to say that the powers that be at MOED knew of these concerns and ignored the health concerns of the school? Why is politricks involved…the MOED has bosses who have bosses who have bosses that could and should have done something before it got to this point. Still some unanswered questions!!!
At least the road to Dockyard got repaved for the AC! #priorities
The money we make from AC will pay for it. FACTS
Yes now all of bermuda can see what òur children have had to put up with did you all seè those disgusting toilets. Thanks to the teachers Parents and students for standing up for your school
The pictures are very telling and I’m appalled at the poor state of cleaning.
The issues that required an immediate response from the government’s inspector report did not deal with mould!!!
The key words in the report that everyone is overlooking are on page 7 of the independent consultant’s IAQ report, “results for airborne mould levels in each test area were well below those observed outdoors”. Outdoors is used as the control. I googled some other IAQ reports and saw the same thing.
Basically, the report shows that the health risk to mould is much lower inside than outside.
Take a moment to look at the evidence in this report: the outdoor control had about 13,000 spores/m3 of air while the “room with the highest levels”-the art supply room had half of that. So really, what the report is saying is Tatem has poor housekeeping, it has high indoor humidity, so if left unchecked a mold issue could get to the point where it is greater that the outdoors (the control).
This does not warrant a disruption of teaching or relocation of classes. This evidence says MOE get your facilities management in order and clean the schools!
BUT went over the top to make their point that the schools feel neglected. This could have been a great opportunity to demonstrate conflict resolution we failed. Hopefully, folks can separate from their emotions and follow the evidence like I did.