Signing covenant school housing St. Eustatius
Deputy Government Commissioner Mervyn Stegers of the Public Entity of St. Eustatius placed his signature next to that of the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education and Media, Arie Slob, on Wednesday August 28th in order to complete the covenant that establishes the agreements for the two final education housing projects on the island of St Eustatius.
This regards the new building of the Gwendoline van Putten School (GvP) and the ongoing renovation and new construction for the Seventh Day Adventist School (SDA School). The agreement further establishes that the Minister will put regulation in place to transfer the responsibility of the exterior maintenance of the schools from the Public Entity to the school boards. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture will transfer the required budget for the realization of the last two education housing projects in three equal installments the Public Entity; in September 2019, June 2020 and June 2021.
In accordance with the agreement the Public Entity of St. Eustatius has drawn up an action plan for the implementation of the renovation and new construction of the two concerned schools. This plan has been submitted to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science for approval. The construction and renovation process will be led by a project manager of the Public Entity. With this the Public Entity is responsible for the renovation and construction. "As a Public Entity we are pleased that the Ministry is prepared to place the responsibility in the hands of the local government. I expect that this will speed up the process and that we will have a school complex within approximately two years, one St. Eustatius can be proud, "says Mervyn Stegers.
The renovation and construction of the concerned buildings must meet the BES code. This serves as a guideline for the construction of buildings in the Caribbean Netherlands, which takes into account local situations such as possible hurricanes and earthquakes.
The project SDA School will be delivered in October upcoming and the start of the GVP project is expected to commence in the spring of 2020.