By Caribbean Medical News Staff
After the completion of the first phase last year, the May Pen campus of the Windsor School for Special Education is seeking critical financial assistance to commence the second phase of construction for its new facility. The new building is being constructed in order to meet the demands of an increase in the number of students relative to space. The first phase includes three classrooms, as well as the sanitation and administration areas.
Windsor school is owned by the Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities (JAID) and jointly operated with the Ministry of Education. The initiative was funded by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund costing approximately $30 million after an application from JAID’s former Executive Director, Grace Duncan, in 2005. The Ministry of Education also pitched in by allotting $3-million. JAID’s current Executive Director Christine Rodriguez, said that the second phase will include four classrooms, paving, fencing and a sick bay and should cost another $30 million.
“We are severely challenged financially to complete the critical second phase. So we are making an appeal to Jamaicans to help us complete the facility so we can better serve the needs of our intellectually and physically disabled students in Clarendon. Mr Mike Henry, the Member of Parliament, is helping us with the bushing of the land and seeking goodwill from the community to identify the funding in cash or kind to complete this phase. We had a little money that was for other purposes, but it’s not enough to complete the process. So we have about a third of the funding that is needed and wherever that stops, that’s where we will have to stop,” lamented May Pen’s Vice-principal Claire Jackson-Davis.
The Vice Principle stressed that the space constraint is adversely affecting the school’s ability to enrol more students. “The problem we have is the inability of the building to facilitate classrooms because what we have are spaces separated by chalkboards for the most part,” she added.
“Some parents express anger at the school because they feel they’re being slighted. They go straight to the ministry because they don’t accept that we have a limitation. But we still encourage them to call us to see if any space becomes available,” said Jackson-Davis.
JAID’s Rodriguez said that the new school facility is intended to accommodate the 13-to 20-year-old students, while the 6-to-12 year olds are to be educated at a modified May Pen unit. She stressed that is was critical to finish the construction of the entire facility in time for the new school year.
