Wait-and-see as rain stalls reconstruction at Maggotty High

MAGGOTTY, St Elizabeth — As Maggotty High School leaders weigh extending rotation for its 1,400 students when school reopens in September, a proposal is being made to abandon a waterlogged site earmarked for four classrooms. Principal Sean Graham and building technology and construction teacher Delgado Kelly said they had proposed to a contractor to do a two-floor building with 12 classrooms at another section of the school, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Melissa last October. According to Graham, agriculture science students are without four classrooms following damage to a building and poultry area from which 300 chicks were lost.

Buildings at Maggotty High School in northern St Elizabeth left partially roofless by Hurricane Melissa last October. “As a result of Hurricane [Melissa], we lost the roof and the entire structure, so...the National Education Trust (NET) demolished the classrooms there with the view to reconstruct some other classrooms from scratch, but we have a challenge due to rain every day,” Graham told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to the school on Wednesday. “The [contractor] is not able to lay the foundation properly, so the work has not started; it was to start four weeks ago,” he added.

He said the construction of the new classroom block is now in a wait-and-see phase. “Outside of the weather, the [contractor] has an equipment problem with a tractor. He has shifted the timeline to the end of September, but the fact that nothing has started as yet we still have some concerns,” said Graham.

A waterlogged area slated for the building of four classrooms at Maggotty High. His colleague, Kelly, said the construction is hampered almost daily by rain and suggested two additional classrooms be built along with the four already slated for agriculture science students. “The trenches are already filled with water to capacity, so my suggestion is to cancel here and do a two-storey building [at another section of the school],” he said.

The trenches are the foundation of the building. “We are doing six classrooms on [the other side of the compound], so we could add another six on the top and that would actually speed up the work for the school year,” Kelly added. Maggotty High Principal Sean Graham is amused while interacting with a student painting under a staircase at the school on Wednesday.

Graham said the proposal is to be made to NE…