Persons seeking to mislead others about ESHS reconstruction project
Education Minister Dr Natalio Wheatley has denounced the practice of persons misleading others about the rebuilding project being done for Elmore Stoutt High School’s (ESHS) main campus in Road Town.
“There are some persons out there who are genuinely frustrated and they mean well, but there are other persons out there who have agendas, and who are seeking to mislead people,” Dr Wheatley said recently on the VIP’s Let’s Talk radio show.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” the Minister insisted in response to persons who are alleging that nothing is being done to rebuild the main campus at ESHS.
“It’s dangerous to speak about things when you do not have the facts,” Dr Wheatley added.
“Some persons use, perhaps this misinformation to misguide persons, to lead them down the wrong direction for their own political benefit,” he stated.
Dr Wheatley said he held consultations with teachers at the high school’s junior campus and some of the teachers expressed great satisfaction and were very impressed by the plans that were drawn up for the school’s rebuild.
He further commented on the previous NDP government’s handling of the repairs to the school.
“As soon as we got in (elected), Premier, we saw that the previous administration was playing with this L-shaped building,” Dr Wheatley said in reference to the repair work being done on one of the main buildings at the ESHS Road Town campus.
He said his party took the proverbial bull by the horns and placed several contractors towards getting the project done; which the VIP successfully completed in time for the then-upcoming academic school in September.
He added that the same energy will be expended to complete other buildings on the campus so that students can soon be removed from their temporary accommodation at the Clarence Thomas Limited (CTL) building at Pasea Estate.
Government signed four contracts for $3.7 milliom in April 2019 to restore the L-shaped building on the ESHS campus.
https://bvinews.com/3-7m-to-restore-eshs-l-shaped-building-govt-signs-four-contracts/
At the time, Premier Andrew Fahie said the tender process was waived for the project and funding was attained locally.
He said by taking this route as opposed to seeking funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), multiple local contractors would benefit. He further said while he appreciated the CDB, going through them would have taken several months.
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This one-termer likes too much tit for tat drama
Yes yes it’s all conspiracy and fake news. Nothing to see here folks. Please move along…
Sigh
The audacity of this guy. The “danger” to speak about these things? Really? Grow the eff up. Wow. Threatening, insulting, and demeaning people from a position of power. There is your government people.
But carry on
It’s now 2021. By my math you now have a full class of students which never had a regular year of high school.
The situation is not just on the VIP. At the same time minister you’re missing the urgency of the problem.
Listen to this l**er. Boss you have been on the job for 28 months now and you still blaming the previous government for things? You applied for a job and told people that you could do it and before you do it you’re here making nothing but excuses. Why after 28 months the students have no furniture? Why after 28 months the school wasn’t fix properly -bathrooms deplorable etc. Why after 28 months no work has started on new buildings but VIP cronies have pork falling out of both sides of their mouth. Why?
EXACTLY! Why he and others here crying. When they took the stimulus monies and distribute to persons who are blind, who diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, who hook up to a life support machine, who did not apply, who are not farmers or fishermen, that money should have been allocated to furnish the schools and other unfinished projects.
VIP has totally ignored what they were supposed to be doing. But they have time on hand to respond to every post on face book, write letters to individuals who talk about them, etc.
PETTY!
You guys never thought this would have come back to haunt you.
We the people are fed up!
VOTE VIP OUT!
Tired of the lies, tired of the bad leadership, tired of the political interferences, tired of Trumplike, bully behavior, tired of the lack of vision VIP, just tired.
Go look a job…one termer!
Sorry Sowande but that is absolute nonsense and we all know it. I have not seen ONE positive report from a teacher that came out of that meeting, but I have seen several who have voiced their concern that the plan set out to them was not promising and they were skeptical about the information being presented to them by the ministry…. to call a spade a spade, they felt they were lied to and the ministry were trying to pull the wool over their eyes and justify HOW LITTLE HAS BEEN DONE. Regardless of all of that…. IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG. If you did indeed meet the school in that way ALL OF THE BUILDINGS should have been completed within a year (including all fixtures, fittings and furniture) and the children back in school…. The nonsense we are being fed about waiting on the chairs and desks and its the supplier…… WE ARE NOT STUPID. Stop making excuses for the disgraceful way in which our children’s education and future are being stolen from them. They should have been in school already. The desks should be IN. The chairs should be IN. The children should be IN. This is coming from someone with experience both in construction on Tortola and procuring materials both locally and externally – if the hold up was the source of the funding that YOUR GOVERNMENT had allocated for purchasing the furniture for the buildings YOU should have stood up and fought for the funds to come from somewhere else. If you can find 3.7MILLION to repair the building (which is extortionate by any standard) and $6.1MILLION to give away to anyone who had ever planted a tree (and some who live in apartment blocks who probably haven’t ever planted anything)…. you could have found the money for furniture. LETS BE REAL.
Don’t forget the previous administration was constructing 2 new buildings within the high school compound.
One fell down during hurricane irma and the other one sustained some damage. At least the one that stood up could have been finished. But, I guess it is better (or easier) for them to blame the previous administration.
All of you who drain the swamp…I hope you found what you were looking for.
I work in the government and I happen to know that you are not telling the truth. Dr. Glasgow and his team (before the RDA came)worked hard on getting all the things ready for this project to go to tender. It was a huge amount of work because the building got major damage and that took time to do properly. The previous government had already gotten the money from CDB lined up. The tender documents were opened just before elections. That how the new government VIP was able to start the work. Hon. Wheatley I respect you as a person but you know that you are not being truthful here. Admit it, you messed up. You were not paying attention to your responsibilities. You hardly ever come to work. I can’t tell when last I see you.
these thin skin people never stop amusing me. They are better at tit for tat than doing what they suppose to be doing
If the Minister don’t want people be giving misleading information he should have visibility of the work or progress being done. His words are becoming meaningless to transparency. Stop talking trying to justify your position and actually let your Actions speak for you.(ironically)
This is a long 4 years.sighhhhhh
The Minister is not being truthful. Mr. Minister you failed at the wheel. Stop making excuses. A tremendous amount of work was done under the previous administration to get the L-shape building ready. When the government change everything was ready to go including the funding. There is no way that your government could have started to work on a 5 Million project in 3 months of getting in office if significant planning work was not prior to this. Drexel Glasgow and his team were working tirelessly to get the plans ready. You messed up on the job. Not even the furniture you arranged the students. What were you doing all this time? You cannot say you were working because we have seen no results of anything.
Every one playing politics and not doing wat there are paid for …representation
So Minister, you are saying that u met a project in progress and just pulled the trigger after 3 months, because the gun was loaded by your predecessor .
It is now 28 months and you cant even get the gun loaded.
and u say we dont understand. Obviously u dont understand the planning that was done before u got in govt, when u was up and down criticizing. my question, with that kind of logic, how did u get a phd.
Persons are not seeking to mislead others, they are just sharing what the Government are trying to cover up
we can see there is not a rebuilt, cutting edge high school facility. We can see that we are years on from Irma, we can see that there is no real progress at all. We know that successive elected officials have staggeringly turned down offers of funding and expertise to get these things done.
It doesn’t matter what anyone says, the BVI is failing its people. Badly.
Then telling us not to say anything about it.
We must do better and soon.
Minister Wheatley good job. Don’t mind the few haters.
I commend the Government’s efforts in this respect. The few critics want everyone to forget hurricanes Irma and Covid-19 caused major delays in this and other major government projects. The good thing is this government is moving forward.
There are more of us with this Government than against. Just mean the few against seem more because they are louder and speaking daily also they post negative blogs about the Government all day especially on this news site.
@ my take, I am so glad you can write a post and then have the opportunity to read it on this news site. Obviously you are not a frequent blogger or you would have known that had you posted that on the other pro government news site it would not have seen the light of day. Thx you bvi news for being the fair and balance people’s news site. I commend you for being the conventional news site of choice for many folks in the bvi and beyond
Multiple contracts/contractors = more votes and more costly… Just saying
hip hip hooray for docta of poetry. We wabt back Suwoonday and get this imposter out the way. Youhooroo where are you
Government signed four contracts for $3.7 million in April 2019 to restore the L-shaped building on the ESHS campus.
But, we have not re-built the high school since 2017; because if we can keep you illiterate, we can control you. If we can control you, we can rob you blindly.
I would like you all to wear what you have bought. Just buy something different next election
Well my mother always said to me, Tell the truth always and if its not the truth don’t say anything, because if you tell i lie you will have to tell one more lie to cover the first lie and by the time you finish you have said a whole cocos bag of lies , so speak truth its a hard pill to swallow but its brings healing