By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FOR three days last week while the electricity was disconnected at schools in Grand Bahama due to the government’s non-payment of bills teachers and administrators had to work in “unbearable and uncomfortable” conditions.

Bahamas Union of Teachers area vice president Quinton LaRoda described the work environment as “very unpleasant”.

“The distribution of report cards is usually held in the gymnasiums at the larger school, but the lack of air-conditioning and excessive heat created an unfit environment for teachers,” he said.

The gymnasiums are also used for the national examinations and Mr LaRoda said it would have been most unfortunate if students had been sitting their BJC and BGCSE exams.

He indicated that schools had been initially scheduled to close a week earlier, but the ministry had extended it for an additional week.

“All of this could have been avoided if they had dismissed school a week earlier,” he said.

Grand Bahama Minister Dr Michael Darville said on Friday that over $1m in outstanding bills had been paid to the Grand Bahama Power Company to have electricity supply restored at all 18 government schools. He indicated that power would be restored by no later than today.

One educator said they held their final staff meeting for the year outside on Friday because power had not by then been restored at the school. “I understand that there was a dispute between the ministry and the union over the final date when school was supposed to close. The original agreement was that school would close the third week in June, which would have been on the 20th.

“The ministry said because we were no longer coming to work at 8.30am but instead coming at 8.45am that the 15 minutes per day for the whole year added up to a week. I thought that was really petty. But they pushed it through and got their way and so school did not close until June 27. If school had closed when it was supposed to, the government would have avoided this big embarrassment.”

The educator was also shocked that the Power Company took such a “bold” step turning off the power. “To deliberately target report card day was a bold move. GB Power was obviously pissed off and we are very disappointed that a man of Lionel Sands stature could say, ‘well we paid the bill in September.’ It is now June, I don’t think you need to pay again.”