After admitting last week that he knew nothing of the state of disrepair at Colonel Hill High School on Crooked Island, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Jerome Fitzgerald yesterday reversed course and said that not only does he know about the school's condition, but a plan is in place to repair the facility. Colonel Hill High School was severely damaged by Hurricane Irene last year.

The roof, walls and classrooms were ripped apart by the storm and more than a year later the school remains untouched. When The Nassau Guardian asked Fitzgerald about the state of the school last week he said he would have to look into it. However, yesterday Fitzgerald said he knew about the "forgotten" school all along. "It was not that it was forgotten," said Fitzgerald at a press conference.

"It required extensive work and for one reason or the other it was not done. When I came in as minister I could have pointed out a lot of things that were not done, but I didn't take that approach. "I took the approach that there was work that needed to be done and we need to get the work done and I went about doing that work. It appears now that I have to point out a lot of things that the former minister failed to do whilst he was in office."

He said work on the school should be completed by the end of the year, adding that repairs would cost the government several hundred thousands dollars. The 33 students and nine teachers use a temporary facility that was described by the school's principal, Maegan Colebrooke, as inadequate. "I don't want the students of Crooked Island to feel that they don't deserve the same attention that students in C.R. Walker or H.O. Nash receive from the government.

They are just as important," Colebrooke said last week. "They need to know that, and in order to do that we need to rebuild our school with haste. It's urgent." Fitzgerald said the cost to repair the school is above $50,000 and required Tenders Board approval. He said the government received a scope of works from the Ministry of Works on August 3 and sent it out to tender.

"We indicated this to the district superintendent for the MICAL district, and [Bahamas Union of Teachers] President [Belinda] Wilson three weeks before school opened that we intended to have the repairs done by the end of the year and they both accepted the ministry's position, and were grateful that we are addressing a long outstanding issue," he said. "I understand that we may have one or two of those bids back in now which we are assessing."

Asked when Colonel Hill High School students can expect to be back in their school Fitzgerald said, "Well, I mean it's been ongoing for a long time. "The point is that we are now in a better position to offer the relief, the funding is in place, we have the scope of works and we have gone out to get the bid. "Now it's a question of awarding the contract and we expect before the end of the year that the works down there will be complete. I mean, I said that in my press release. I'm not sure what else you want me to add to that."

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