Groundbreaking for New Canaan SDA High School Facility
The Canaan SDA High School here on Coney Drive will be transformed to a modern seven million-dollar building. The school population has been growing steadily so that it has out grown the current facilities. The plan calls for the construction of a single three-storey building to accommodate classrooms and administration. While fundraising efforts have had some success, there is still need for further funding. Here is Duane Moody with a report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Today at Canaan SDA High School compound on Coney Drive, ground was broken for a multimillion dollar facility that will transform the school after serving students of the community for thirty-one years. The school, as it currently stands has a number of zinc and wooden buildings used as classrooms among other office spaces. The new project will do away with these structures and create a three-storey building valued at seven million dollars.
Pat Alicia Nembhard
Pat Alicia Nembhard, Principal, Canaan SDA High School
“We moved over this side 1508 Coney Drive and after thirty years and more, we are now here at this location and our buildings are a little bit too small to accommodate the amount of students that we want. So today, we officially launched the groundbreaking ceremony for our new school building that will be able to host five hundred and eighty students.”
The new structure will feature eighteen classrooms to host over two hundred more students and additional teachers. All the current structures will be removed to make way for the new look of the education facility.
Pat Alicia Nembhard
“Right now the building that we have, it can only host about three hundred and twenty students. The classrooms will be larger; we will have an auditorium that can host about three hundred students. We will have home economics classroom, music classroom that will be modernized. All the classrooms are modernized classrooms and the building will be so situated that it will be so much cooler in the area. We will be able to have many more teachers coming in as well because the building will be able to host all of those classrooms.”
So far, the school has been able to raise two hundred and thirty thousand dollars through activities by the PTA and the student council. According to Principal Pat Nembhard, international donors will assist, but they would also like the government to be a part of the project.
Pat Alicia Nembhard
“We haven’t completed all financial funding for this building as yet; we are still working on that. We have a lot of donors who are willing to work with us at this time, but we wanted the Belizean people and especially the people in the city for them to know that there is a school that is available for their children to come for the new school year 2019/2020. We are waiting for the Government of Belize to be a part of this initiative as well because at the end of the project, it will be a hurricane shelter for the community; so we are hoping that we can get some funding from the Government of Belize as well.”
When completed, the school will extend its services to students to include a night division as well as Adult Continuation Education Programme.
Pat Alicia Nembhard
“We are hoping with that one big building that’s coming up, we are hoping that we can also have our night school. We are looking at having our sixth form and even our adult continuation programme in that building.”
The timeline for the project to be completed is about two and a half years. Duane Moody for News Five.
