The completion of the move of John Gray High School to its long-awaited new building has hit a snag as Education Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly announced Wednesday that two fire doors ordered for the new school were the wrong ones.
The minister, responding to a parliamentary question from George Town South MP Barbara Conolly, said the two fire doors that arrived on Wednesday were wrong and because of the importance of “safety first” the new school building is not expected to be operational until the first quarter of 2023.
Project A of the multi-million-dollar project, the completion of the new school, includes the main entrance, administration offices, health centre, kitchen, dining area, and a counselling/nurturing area with a secure space for students and staff as they arrive. It also includes technology workshop areas, technical class areas and home economics classes.
The Ministry of Education, in response to Cayman Compass questions, said the wrong doors were due to “a manufacturing error and as such the replacement doors are free of charge”.
The ministry added, “The cost of the doors and their replacements are entirely borne by the contractor and as such we do not have the unit prices at this time.”
The ministry said that the “doors” issue only affects Sector 3 which comprises visual arts.
“The new school buildings are expected to be occupied in stages, with its full occupation completed by the end of the first quarter of 2023,” it said, adding that Sectors 1 (administration and special educational needs), 5 (technology) and 6 (performing arts – music and drama) are all operational.
The ministry said it anticipates that the old building will be “completely emptied by the end of the first quarter of 2023”.
It added that at this time no students will be required to engage with remote learning due to the school move.
“Once Sector 4 (Science & Math) is completed, a significant portion of the school’s population will utilise the completed sectors of the school,” it added.
Responding to a question from Conolly on Wednesday on when the new doors will be procured, O’Connor-Connolly said they are expected to arrive in January and there will be a press release issued with an update.
Finding the way forward
The minister said she met Thursday with project lead McAlpine and her senior staff to discuss the way forward “because it was originally envisioned that the entire school would be moving over”.
The ministry said O’Connor-Connolly received a regular progress report on the project at that meeting.
Teachers at the school, she said, would return on 3 Jan.
She said there is a sector that will get planning approval, and on 3 Jan. a number of classes will move over to that area, but the ministry, in response to a Compass question, did not confirm which sector that would be.
The minister added they were hoping the rest of the students and staff would move to the new site in January, but she “did not want to tie the team down until I had a face-to-face meeting with McAlpine [Thursday] to get all the logistical issues worked out,” she said.
Back in 2020, it was estimated the final phases of the new John Gray High School could cost more than $106 million.
The first of three projects alone had been approved for $76.37 million and the total limit of all three projects had been set at $106.2 million.
That amount would add to the $54.4 million already spent on the school as of 2012 and about $8.8 million spent to finish the school gymnasium ahead of the 2017 election.
The construction project was initiated in 2008 as part of the Cayman Islands government’s efforts to provide a purpose-built institution that would aid teachers in effectively instructing in their subject areas and provide students with the necessary learning resources.
In August 2021, O’Connor-Connolly attended the formal handover of Sectors 1, 5 and 6 of the new John Gray High School from McAlpine Ltd.
At that time, Sectors 2, 3 and 4 were scheduled to be handed over in 2022.
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