Anchovy High poised to fully resume classes

WESTERN BUREAU:

 Thanks to the $14 million donation from the Howard Ward Benefit Foundation, which will go towards repairing damage done to the school by Hurricane Melissa, Dr Lavern Stewart, the principal of Anchovy High School, says the school’s younger cohort of students will soon be able to engage in full-day classes.

“This donation means that very soon, our grade seven and eight students will be able to get back into their classrooms and engage in full-day learning as was normal,” said Stewart. “…. We have received $14 million, to God be the glory, great things He hath done."

According to her, the funds will prioritise repairs at the school’s Dr Fidel Castro Campus, primarily restoring the classrooms for grades seven and eight students, which took a battering from the hurricane that struck Jamaica last October.

Following the passage of the hurricane, which did serious damage to the school’s infrastructure, students are now being accommodated under a series of temporary and evolving arrangements.

The school, which had ended its shift system in 2015 when it opened its Dr Fidel Castro Campus, creating two campuses, was forced to return to a single-site operation after the destruction of its Montpelier-based facility, which typically houses grades seven and eight students.

That campus, which was built to accommodate hundreds of lower-school students, is currently out of commission, leaving a significant portion of the student population without adequate classroom space and forcing administrators to adopt non-traditional scheduling models to keep classes going.

“Anchovy High School has faced challenges that tested our resilience. We are reminded that education is a shared responsibility and a collective vision,” said Stewart about the donation from the Howard Ward Benefit Foundation.

Dr Mitchell Walden-Pinnock, the regional director at the Ministry of Education Region Four, hailed the donation as both timely and transformative.

“This contribution goes far beyond financial support. It represents compassion in action, solidarity in difficult times, and a shared commitment to the well-being and future of our students,” she said, praising the foundation’s chairman, businessman Howard Ward, for his support for education.

“Your foresight, your compassion and your commitment to nation-building reminds us that one idea, driven by purpose, can impact countless lives,” she said.

With schools across western Jamaica still recovering, Walden-Pinnock called for broader support, invoking the principle of shared responsibility.

“I am because we are,” she said, noting that for Anchovy High, the donation signals more than recovery. It marks a turning point. “Anchovy High School will forever remember this day, a day when generosity met vision, and together, we lit a brighter path for generations to come.”

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com