The Tribune

THE government will construct a new primary and secondary school on 20 acres of shared land in North Victoria Hill, San Salvador.

Work has already started on clearing the site on which the two new schools will sit northeast of North Victoria Hill in an area known as the Harbour Yard. The current school is located on a temporary site and used four trailers to accommodate school facilities. During the passage of Hurricane Joaquin, three of those four trailers were severely damaged as were other parts of the school.

The current site also lacked an integrated functionality as all of the buildings were stand-alone which presented mobility challenges during adverse weather.

The new primary school, which will be a state-of-the-art school, will replace the current school (located in Cockburn Town) and will include a computer room that will accommodate 25 students per classroom with their own dedicated work space and laptop, a library room, music room with special acoustic features, art room, a sick bay for students with restrooms, study rooms, administration block, public waiting area, public and staff restrooms and sports facilities for basketball, softball, track and field and tennis.

The current school has 100 students. When the new school is completed, it is anticipated that it will be able to accommodate as many as 200 students.

The primary school will have a number of “special architectural features” including connected, covered walkways to all classrooms and building spaces that will protect the students, staff and administration from adverse weather conditions while allowing them access to classrooms and buildings during such conditions; natural cooling of cross ventilation in each classroom by way of adequate windows; four electrical ceiling fans in each classroom to assist with cooling spaces; storage cabinets; ceramic floor tiles and a covered assembly area that would reduce the need to have children standing in the sun for assembly.

It will be designed with roof finishes consisting of 40-year architectural asphalt shingles and hurricane resistant windows, and external and internal doors. Air conditioning cooling systems will filter cool air to the library, computer room, art classroom and administration and staff rooms.

Livingston Forbes, chief architect at the Ministry of Works and chief architect for the project, said the “interconnectedness” of attaching all the classrooms and building spaces with covered walkways, is significant.

“This allows 100 per cent functionality in terms of adverse weather as the students will be able to move about freely and comfortably to and from each classroom without getting wet in the instance of rain and so that is significant,” Mr Forbes said.

Mr Forbes said the relocation to North Victoria Hill will allow for greater functionality, while also allowing for the creation and construction of the sports facilities that are not available at the current location. The new site allows for all of the core sports to function at the primary school level.

The plans for the new primary school were drawn by officials of the Ministry of Works and Urban Development.

Geronimo Brice, who was the architect, will be the project technician, while Michael Rolle will be project engineer (mechanical) and Mark Hanna the project engineer (electrical and plumbing).

Construction of the primary school is expected to be completed 18 months after all relevant government approvals have been obtained and contracts signed. Construction of the new secondary school will begin after the primary school has been completed.