Appreciation for Sister Islands community

Education Minister Roy Bodden, Chief Education Officer
Nyda Flatley (front left) and Acting Permanent Secretary
Mary Rodrigues pay tribute to Sister Islands Education
Officer Mexi-Ann Grant (front centre), principals,
teachers and members of the community for their role
in the post-hurricane education recovery process

Friday,  March 11, 2005

Sister Islands Education Officer, Mexi-Ann Grant, was described as “a worthy ambassador of Cayman Brac” by Education Minister, the Hon Roy Bodden, and “a true leader and a hero,” by Acting Permanent Secretary Mary Rodrigues, for her role in the post-Ivan education recovery process.

Mr. Bodden and Ms. Rodrigues were speaking at an evening of appreciation Saturday 5 March at the Aston Rutty Civic Centre on Cayman Brac. The occasion was to honour the contributions made by the people of the Sister Islands to absorb almost 300 children into the school system on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. 

Awardees included the Teacher’s Centre, principals and staff of schools on the Brac and the Little Cayman Educational Service (LCES), the Stake Bay Baptist Church, the CB Public Library, the Brac Museum, Veterans and Seaman’s Society of CB and LC, District Commissioner Kenny Ryan and staff of the District Administration Office. PTA executive members and other community representatives were also among the guest list.

“I am delighted to know that the people who worked so hard to ensure that the children who came over from Grand Cayman after the hurricane were afforded the same educational opportunities as our children, are being recognized tonight,” said Mrs Grant.

Schools were reopened on Cayman Brac three days after the hurricane, even though one had been used as a shelter, thanks to principals, teachers, maintenance men, janitors and groundsmen, said Mrs. Grant.
After the storm, she was contacted by more and more parents and guardians who wanted to enroll their children into the Sister Islands’ schools and return them to some sort of normalcy.

“Being out of communication with the Education Department in Grand Cayman, I took the bold step and made the decision to accept as many students as the schools could accommodate.”

Mrs Grant and principals decided on the number of students each school could accept, and on Monday 20 September, 147 students were admitted to the primary schools on the Brac and three to LCES. During that week, 62 students from Years 7, 9, 10 and 11 were admitted to the CBHS, and 29 from Years 8 and 9 were admitted the week of 11 October.

“We put all the children first and did all that we could do to help them,” she said, and added she was very proud the Brac community rallied to their needs during this period of the children’s lives.

Meanwhile, on Grand Cayman, the Education Department were having to deal with 18 million dollars of damage to school buildings, almost 6 million in lost assets, including furniture, equipment and books, and structural damage to many public buildings, including the Education Department building, explained Ms. Rodrigues.

“In addition, we were faced with traumatized staff from all our departments and schools: homeless staff, staff without transportation; staff suffering from stress. We had children who had undergone traumatic experiences and who no longer had access to the stabilizing effect of attending school; we had parents who could not begin the process of rebuilding their lives because schools were closed and they had no one to care for their children.”

At the same time many schools were being used to shelter thousands of people without anywhere else to go, she said.

“I must tell you that, in those early days, the challenges that faced us seemed almost insurmountable. For me, personally, the first ray of hope came from the Brac: when I made contact with Mrs Mexi and she informed me that schools had reopened and had taken in many students from Grand Cayman.” Ms. Rodrigues visited Cayman Brac to assess the situation.

“What I found in Cayman Brac humbled me and made me extremely proud of what had been achieved by the principals and teachers, under the able leadership of Ms Mexi: almost every school had doubled its population, teachers had been reallocated, rooms converted, and all with a minimum of fuss and without any external support,” said Ms Rodrigues. “In every classroom I visited there were children with many different uniforms, but there were no divisions - they were operating as a group. I was also impressed by the attitude of the principals - there were no complaints, even though I knew resources were stretched. Instead, there was a calmness, a focus, a sense that they felt this was just their way of contributing to the recovery of the country.”

A decision was made to set up a primary and a secondary learning centre in order to teach students on the Island that the schools were unable to accommodate. Stake Bay Baptist Church and the CB and LC Veterans’ and Seaman’s Centre were offered as sites for the two learning centres. 

“Pastor Barron and the executive branch of the Veterans’ and Seaman’s Society offered their wonderful facilities with no hesitation, just a desire to contribute,” said Ms. Rodrigues.

She gave credit to the District Commissioner and his staff, and the Public Works Department on Cayman Brac in helping to set up the learning centres.

“I left Cayman Brac with the promise that I would go back and secure the necessary teachers and resources they needed at the schools and for the learning centres,” she added. ”With the help of the CEO, principals and staff of the Education Department and the Schools’ Inspectorate, we were able to make it happen.”

She also paid tribute to the teachers who came from Grand Cayman to work at the learning centres or within the schools, represented at the ceremony by Barbara Pearce-Ebanks. 

“I thank them for their generosity, their enthusiasm and their caring, both as a representative of the Ministry and as a mother, because my son attended the primary learning centre,” she said.

Mrs. Grant pointed out that these teachers came despite the situation in their own homes, where some had lost all their belongings.

Addressing all the honourees, the Minister said, “This feat of generosity and hospitality will long be remembered, and when the chronicler is called upon to pen his lines, it will become part of history.”

In an interview with Cayman Net News, Mr. Bodden indicated that lessons learned through the experience of accommodating students from Grand Cayman would be incorporated into contingency planning, in the event of another major storm. He said, however, that he did not think that the situation could have gone more smoothly, even if it had been pre-planned.

Contingency plans will also be laid to accommodate Brac students and teachers in the event of a hurricane strike on this Island, he said. Priorities would have to be given to students in the last three years of school, Years 10 through 12, who are at a critical stage in their education. Below these years, it would be possible to structure additional years or enrichment programmes, said the Minister.

Back...