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Education, Local news, News

Verchilds High School Guidance Counseling Department presently hosting a Drug Prevention Program at Unique Touch Christian Centre in Sandy Point. The presenters are: Mrs. Karimo Byron-Caines, Officer Percival and Mr. Clive Saunders. The boys will be taken to OTI for lunch at 12:00 pm.

Published 13 March 2018

Buckke Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source

Verchilds High School Guidance Counseling Department presently hosting a Drug Prevention Program at Unique Touch Christian Centre in Sandy Point. The presenters are: Mrs. Karimo Byron-Caines, Officer Percival and Mr. Clive Saunders. The boys will be taken to OTI for lunch at 12:00 pm.

Local news, News

EC$1 million BHS trailers in Beach-Allen graveyard

EC$1 million BHS trailers in Beach-Allen graveyard

Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 13, 2018 – Several trailers, purchased in 2015 at a cost of nearly EC$1 million by the Team Unity Government to provide additional classrooms for Basseterre High School (BHS) students, remain unused and in a graveyard at the Beach-Allen Primary School.

In July 2015, Education Minister Hon. Shawn Richards said Public Works Department official, George Gilbert and St. Kitts Teachers Union President and the BHS Guidance Counsellor, Ron Collins had travelled to the United States to purchase the trailers.

Several were imported and on arrival were located first on a piece of open land west of the temporary BHS at Taylors and have since been moved and lay waste and unused on the Beach-Allen Primary School compound.

Remedial works costing some EC$7 million were spent at the original BHS location by the Labour Party administration following the recommendation of local, regional and international organisations.

The reports from the local scientists, Dr. Milton Whittaker and Mr. Clement “Bouncing” Williams; the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI), also based in Trinidad and the Washington-based National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recommended that the buildings could be inhabited after remedial works are completed.

But the reports were rejected by the new Timothy Harris-led PLP/CCM/PAM Government and three of the wooden structures were removed from the Eastern Campus for use as classrooms and the Principal’s Office at a cost of EC$400,000 to the temporary site.

The Team Unity Government also spent EC$4 million to build what they called a temporary state-of-the-art wooden structure by INNOTECH, a Barbados company, by-passing local construction companies.

Desk, chairs, tables and air condition units were also removed from the original Eastern and Western BHS campuses and installed at the temporary facility at Taylor’s and at the Verchild’s High School and other schools.

Millions of dollars have been spent on the design of a new Basseterre High School which the Prime Minister Harris and Education Minister Richards will construct on the main aquifer which supplies millions of gallons of water daily to Basseterre and its environs.

Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has called on the people of Basseterre and its environs to protect the island’s major source of drinking water.

“The technical people are speaking out and are basically challenging the position that is being adopted by this administration in wanting to locate a new Basseterre High School on the Basseterre Aquifer, which serves the entire Basseterre area with its drinking water supply,” said the former prime minister.

East Basseterre resident, Mr. Glenroy Blanchette said he is troubled by the decision to build a new Basseterre High School (BHS) on the Basseterre Valley Aquifer.

“The risks to life and property are too great. This is the right time for the government to adopt the precautionary principle and do not build on the Aquifer. To do otherwise will create untold hardship for present and future generations. A word to the wise is enough,” warned Blanchette, a lecturer at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC).

Blanchette, a trained geographer and Disaster Management Specialist for 15 years said “to think that this government is going to be so recklessly criminal by putting such a valuable water resource at risk, is really mind-boggling.”

One of the Federation’s renowned architect and planner, Mr. Victor Williams, said construction of the proposed new Basseterre High School (BHS) could cost in the region of EC$80 million.

He said the Richards’ figure of EC$40 million does not include the cost of several amenities including support buildings, fencing, furniture, lab equipment and air conditioning.

After five years – two in opposition and three in government – the start of construction seems far off.

Photo 1 – Trailers in the Beach-Allen graveyard

Photo 2 – Section of wooden structure being moved from the Eastern Campus to the temporary facility

Photo 3 – Temporary BHS facility at Taylors with classes still being held on the outside

Photo 4 – original Basseterre High School (West section of Western Campus)

Photo 5 – original Basseterre High School (East section of Western Campus)

Photo 6 – Dr. Timothy Harris and Mr. Shawn Richards

Local news, News

PM HARRIS EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY OF FORMER CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER JOSEPH J. HALLIDAY, PHD, OBE

Published 13 March 2018

Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source

by Media Source

PM HARRIS EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY OF FORMER CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER JOSEPH J. HALLIDAY, PHD, OBE

Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris extends his heartfelt condolences, and those of the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis, to the family and loved ones of Dr. Joseph Halliday, OBE.

Dr. Halliday, a former Chief Education Officer and Headmaster at the Sandy Point High School (now the Charles E. Mills Secondary School), has died at the age of 79 years old. He was born in Fig Tree, Sandy Point on July 13^th, 1938.

Local news, News, Politics

WAS THIS NEPOTISM DURING THE DOUGLAS ADMINISTRATION OR HAD IT TO DO WITH QUALIFICATIONS?

Published 13 March 2018

Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source

by Media Source

WAS THIS NEPOTISM DURING THE DOUGLAS ADMINISTRATION OR HAD IT TO DO WITH QUALIFICATIONS?

The St Kitts Labor Party has been reeked and punctuated with nepotism from as early in the 80s but has reached the epitome in the 2000s under Dr Douglas, where the following families have reportedly benefitted tremendously while Dr. Douglas was Prime Minister.

Both Marcella and Douglas would have us believe that there was an absence of nepotism within the SKLP over the years but they have prompted me to ask the following questions.

Local news, News

WOMEN IN ST. KITTS HONOURED FOR THEIR SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Published 13 March 2018

Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source

WOMEN IN ST. KITTS HONOURED FOR THEIR SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 08, 2018 (SKNIS): The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis joined senior government officials and hundreds of empowered and independent women at the Royal St. Kitts Hotel today, March 08, to honour outstanding women for their contributions to the Federation’s development.

While giving the opening remarks at the International Women’s Day Awards Ceremony, Minister of State with responsibility for Gender Affairs, the Honourable Wendy Phipps, said that, “our role here is not just to come and listen to a couple of speeches but to take note of what is being said and to do some sort of self-examination and find out what can I do individually, collectively, in terms of community, at the regional and international levels to change the statistic.”

“I do wish us a most gracious, reflective and meaningful International Women’s Day,” she added.

Featured speaker, Mrs. Ingrid Charles-Gumbs, said that the importance of celebrating International Women’s Day is to highlight the contributions of women and keep “the claims of gender equality firmly on national agendas worldwide.”

She noted that the theme “#PressforProgress” is a personal mission to ensure that women’s rights are taken seriously and that their “issues are taken into concern and that the stereotypical thinking disappears.”

“Pressing for progress suggests intentional action that is absolutely essential to move women from the periphery of political decision making to be represented in proportion to their presence in the population at the decision making level,” she added.

The award ceremony was a collaboration between the Ministry of Gender Affairs and the Ross University School of Medicine.

Among those awarded were Mrs. Sonia Henry who received a special Prime Minister’s Award for being an active leader in various women’s groups in church and in the community of Molineux, and Mrs. Mavis Armstrong, who was awarded for her contribution to Education for over 41 years.

Additionally, Ms. Faith Benjamin was awarded for her contributions to Manufacturing and Industry; Ms. Michelle Stokes “Sweet Sister Sensia” for her contribution in the area of Media and Entertainment; Mrs. Merle Liburd- Browne for her contribution in Culinary Arts; Rev. Janet Paul for her contribution in Religion; Mrs. Catherine Pemberton for her contribution in Agriculture; and Dr. Kathleen Allen-Ferdinand for her contribution in Medicine.

Women centered organizations received donations from local businesses.. CIBC First Caribbean International Bank donated a sum of EC$2,500.00 to Project Viola and Ross University, in collaboration with the St. Kitts and Nevis Scotia Bank, donated a collective sum of $EC 9,141.00 to Ade’s Place, a daycare center that cares for persons with disabilities.

International Women’s Day under the theme for this year “#PressforProgress”, is celebrated yearly on March 08, to commemorate the political, social, economic and cultural achievements of women. This day has been celebrated for over 100 years.