JGHS campus opens 15 years after work started
(CNS): The New John Gray High School (JGHS) campus officially opened on Monday, 20 March, some 15 years after construction began in 2008. The state-of-the-art school was besieged with delays triggered by disputes with both the original general contractor and sub-contractors, as well as the government’s financial problems due to the economic crash. But after numerous stops and restarts followed by a phased approach, the campus is finally finished.
Lyneth Monteith, the acting chief officer in the Ministry of Education, hosted the ceremonial opening last week. She said the new school would “undoubtedly provide students with a state-of-the-art learning environment that will inspire and challenge them to reach their full potential”.
Before the ribbon cutting to officially open the buildings, Education Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly implored parents to support the school and for students to take advantage of the many opportunities the school presented.
She said past and present governments had provided students with everything they need to succeed. “It’s now up to you to knock it out of the park when the next results come in so you can move from being a good school to an excellent one,” O’Connor-Connolly added.
The purpose-built facility, which was opened to students at the start of the year, is designed to ensure the efficient delivery of teaching models and create more opportunities for vocational pathways, according to officials.
It features a state-of-the-art performing arts centre and automotive shop, special labs for clothing and textiles, food and nutrition, and design and construction technology. It also aims to provide a safe, modern and comfortable learning environment for students.
The full cost of this school project is unknown. But accumulative evidence from various budget allocations suggests that when the final reckoning is made it could be more than four times the original price tag of less than $60 million.
Premier Wayne Panton called on students to take care of the new facility, given the cost. “I encourage you to care for it, be proud of it, to protect it from those within and outside who would try to tarnish its reputation. Take ownership of it because it was built with your well-being and security in mind and to help you, as your school motto says, ‘Hold fast to that which is good’,” he said.
Governor Martyn Roper, who sealed a time capsule and unveiled a plaque to mark the opening, urged students to make the best use of the school and all its new facilities. “Use the extra space and resources to explore your passions, challenge yourself academically, and engage in extracurricular activities that will help you grow as individuals,” he said.
The many dignitaries in attendance did not include Sir Alden McLaughlin, who in 2006 as education minister made the decision that government would build three new high schools. According to Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart, the Progressives team had made a commitment to attend the agriculture show in Cayman Brac and spend time over there before they learned of the official opening.
See the opening ceremony online on CIGTV below:
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Category: Education, Local News
Not a solar panel in sight.
What is the operating cost of the campus? I bet the monthly CUC is well over $50k,
I have a suggestion i would like to make
https://youtu.be/I6qFKL6STlE
I hope that am not over stepping my boundry line to make that suggestion, but if you have a moment to watch the brief youtube interview with one of our former politicians Roy Bodden and Resh of the Cayman Compass you will understand; coupled with the new innovative early childhood career tours starting with the avaitation industry
It beiefly explains some of the concerns our youth have with finding honest and gainful employment as well as aquiring adequate housing
Hence, it would be really great if our hotels and high schools could work togerher to offer high school students who is about to graduate, a tour of careers choices in the hospitality industry and how a University College of the Cayman Islands Hospitality and Tourism College Certificate could help students find successful and rewarding careers in the tourism industry
https://www.ucci.edu.ky/certificate-in-hospitality-and-tourism
New here or haveyou forgotten the massive hiring events at the hotels that few local job seekers attended?
Truth be told, most local job seekers think hospitality and service jobs are beneath them, and many more are simply unemployable.
Glad this is finally opened, the facility is fantastic! It is just up to the students and the parents to take advantage of every opportunity being presented.
This school was a very expensive national project – hopefully the students have enough respect to utilize it appropriately, resist vandalism and focus on learning – and hopefully parents will thoroughly encourage them to do just that.
Glad that its finally built and a modern school.Yet how can it be that 15 years ago Dart had offered to build 10 state of the art schools across Cayman for $100 million but was refused? I’m not a big fan of his but truth be told whatever he does is well built and beautiful. By the way buildings don’t provide excellent education or citize8, teachers and educators do this. So please invest in getting the best even if it’ll be costly.
Without educated teachers, nothing will change. Bring in teachers from the US and UK not Jamaica.
or do due diligence. I have had amazing colleagues from Jamaica. I have had terrible ones too, but they have also hailed from places like the UK.
Don’t Stop The Carnival!
Actually, we definitely want to stop the Carnival. #nomoretrailertrash
I was still in high school when they broke ground on this and they said we’d be able to use it in our graduating year…
Also, I graduated 13 years ago so close enough I guess.
One cannot only just blame the Gov’t; wondering who were the advisers to CIG on award in 2008..
…a quarter of a BILLION dollars !!!! to build this edifice to narcissism, greed and crassness …as well as GRAFT, ineptitude and pure self-interest. Students will come out still better prepared for the next life and not the current one….those few who happen to pass with the 3″R”s – for teh rest – University of Northward awaits.
YET …no-one has or will ever go to gaol for this highway robbery of the people’s money ( a quarter of a BILLION dollars !!!!…(see the Owen Roberts Airport project), no lessons will ever be learned (despite any number of Auditor General reports) and no one will ever remember…until the next one… The dump/ReGen or the Cruise Port…but they are now getting too big even for the fat taxes generated by the International Financial Service’s Industry to support….see what happened to Bermuda – and despair!
very nice….pre-school for northward.
Wait till you hear what the new Northward prison is going to cost. Government just awarded contract for an excessive waste of public funds.
as proved with clifton hunter….no matter how much money you spend on the fanciest of buildings …the results will remain the same.
the only hope for these kids is….better teachers and parenting.
Which of the new buildings will house the behavioral units?
Imagine how hopeless the future is when you need to implore students to not wreck the place. Guess they probably have one thing in common as well…. Island not far from us maybe? And we’re not talking the Brac.
Clown land. Honk honk.
Feral children, mediocre teachers, unsupportive parents. Nothing will change.
Ex JGHS teacher here. To your points. Some, some, and some. You fail to see the fact that there are some great students, teachers, and parents. Yes, there’s some real deadbeats, but I’ve met amazing, gifted children there.
Don’t let the minority cloud your judgment.
Another JGHS teacher here. To YOUR points, 9:40. A few; more than there should be; far, far more than there should be. I agree…broadly…with the rest of your post.
15 years to build a school 🤣 Good lord, where did the money go?
It’s like a 24 month project at most.
Another day in wonderland. Where countries have bulldozed and built cross country rail in the time it’s taken us to build a “good” school.
My sides 🤣
It’s what you call milking it. You can bet the same kind of money won’t be spent on proper curriculum and teachers though.
The new school does not have a play field. Is it really complete?
Too hot outside for the precious kids and millennial teachers.
Looks just like Clifton Hunter. How did it get built so much faster?
Juliana O’Connor-Connolly. The education minister who still employs a DIY exorcist.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/07/ministry-refuses-foi-on-exorcism-scandal/
You couldn’t make it up.
I guess the PPM’s JGHS gravy train stopped now that the school is completed.
Cant budget more money for construction if it is completed, so…
15 years to build a school, thats how long the UDP and PPM took – 15 years!! All the while their children going to elite local schools, while the poor people suffer from lack of public schools for affordable education.
All of them need to be bathed in cowshit for that disgrace to our (poor people) children.
Betcha if it was an Olympic sized swimming pool on the Brac Bluff they would have got it done quick though!!
Bunch of Wasters. Can the Auditor General please do an audit to show where the 200+ million KYD dollars went over the 15 years – please please??
You can blame the UDP on a lot of things, but this one lies squarely on the PPM and Alden. They were bamboozled by an education consultant and a Canadian construction company that thought they knew everything. It cost this country tens of millions of dollars more than it should have because of their arrogance and ineptitude.
Cannot only blame the foreign contractor or the education consultant.. its also local advisors .. this happens repeatedly even now
You can also blame massive cost increases , years of COVID shut down, worldwide problems in materials acquisition, inflation and the list goes on.
Much easier to blame “foreign contractors”
Except Covid 19 and the consequent supply chain issues started 4 years ago, not 15. 11 years of failures prior to that. More to do with construction quality and redesign demands – basically shockingly bad project management and poor procurement practice. At best.
Let’s go back in history. The costs under the PPM went up when the civil service asked that the school be converted to a CAT 5 hurricane shelter. That was in the aftermath of Ivan. (It was completed as a hurricane shelter to accommodate almost 5,000 people). Under the UDP in 2009, the project was mismanaged and split up into loads of smaller contractors, and the costs went up even more – till, finally, the project was stopped.
Does anyone know why they moved the scheduled opening date up from April 17th with less than a weeks notice? Loads of areas were not finished and still under construction. Last hurrah for someone before they leave Cayman?
Yes.
PACT wants it announced before the change in government lol.
Rumor is this building has already suffered vandalism from within.
*Rumour
From which district can children attend?
Mainly Jamaica, but some from Barbados, Trinidad, Honduras, and George Town.
Four times over-budget, and a whole generation past due. Astonishing even by PPM standards.
There was no budget.