Parkinson Memorial Secondary School Addresses Environmental Concerns Leading to School Closure

The Parkinson Memorial Secondary School has begun tackling environmental concerns that forced an early closure of the school, Barbados TODAY has learned.

General Secretary of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Herbert Gittens confirmed that on Wednesday, workmen from various agencies arrived at the Pine, St Michael school to investigate and address several issues after a meeting involving the school’s board, the union, and an official from the Ministry of Education.

On Tuesday, classes were abruptly halted following complaints from teachers about a noxious odour, bed bug infestations, and the presence of cats.

“The meeting was cordial, it provided a good opportunity for staff to outline all of the challenges that were being presented at the school,” Gittens said. “The main issues were bedbugs, slippery tiles from droppings of death beetles, and there are a lot of cats on the compound and they are leaving a lot of vomit and dung. There are about four staff members who are absent from duty for different reasons and that is creating some challenges in terms of substitutions, and there are some classes that are not being attended in terms of teaching and children are missing out on teaching. The other issue that was critical was the ongoing stench that is suspected to be sewage.”

He noted that each issue was being addressed separately, with immediate actions already in progress.

“[Wednesday], a pest control company was on the compound doing investigations and treating the two rooms where bedbugs were found, and a waste management company was checking the wells to see if there were any issues with the sewerage system. Lattice was purchased to stop the cats from entering the rooms. It was suggested that trapping could be done and let the RSPCA [Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals] deal with them.”

The BUT general secretary said the school’s board has also agreed to carry out remedial actions to resolve the issues at the school so that teaching and learning can continue.

“The union and the staff are fairly satisfied with the promises made by the board to rectify the problems, and we will give them the opportunity to carry out the promises,” he said.

Herbert added that some of these issues had carried over from the previous school year and expressed hope that the actions taken would prevent further disruptions.

“There are some things that would come up that you cannot plan for, but then if there are ongoing challenges that . . . if you deal with them properly you may help alleviate the chances of them popping up again and being disruptive,” Gittens said.