Project BAHS 2000

Mrs Judy Chang, very hard-working Chairman of the Building Committee, addresses the gathering	Principal, Ms Valerie Taylor reads from the diary of Miss Stephen, dated Jan 13^th, 1921 where she summarised her feelings about the very first day of Bishop Anstey High School
Minister Nicholson steps forward to turn the sod	Has the ground for a new building ever been so thoroughly blessed? With such an auspicious start, we know that our dream will be realised.

As you know only too well, Bishop Anstey High School was founded some seventy seven years ago and in 1923 moved into the former Siegert Block which was purchased by the Anglican Church for this purpose. The buildings were far from new at that time. Over the years, the School has grown but our buildings have not kept pace; our most recent acquisition was our School Hall opened in 1971 and, before that a small laboratory area and a classroom block still referred to as New Building' nearly fifty years after its construction! Daily, we are confronted with the realities of our very inadequate accommodation and the difficulties this imposes on us as we attempt to offer our students the best possible conditions for their education and to retain our position amongst the leading centres of education in Trinidad and Tobago. Clearly it is time for something new.

It is with this in mind that we have embarked upon our very ambitious and visionary Project 2000 – a plan to reconstruct, replace or refurbish all our buildings without surrendering the essential and sometimes intangible elements which make up Bishop Anstey High School. This will ensure that we have, very early in the new millenium, a School that is equipped and ready to allow us to meet the new challenges which will undoubtedly present themselves.

Project 2000 was launched officially in March1996 at a major function held in the School's library and attended by the new Minister of Education, Dr Adesh Nanan. Elsewhere on this website, you will have read the eloquent appeal of the then Head Girl, Tricia Barrow, which formed a part of this function. Our major aim was to inform the business community of our urgent needs in terms of physical plant and to inspire them to assist us with Project 2000.

This is the large building for which the sod was turned on St. Hilary's Day and represents the first phase of Project 2000. It will contain two laboratories for each of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Integrated Science and Geography, an audio-visual room and all the necessary preparation and other ancillary facilities. Construction is now underway and proceeding apace to take advantage of the dry season. The hope is that of completion before the end of the year; it will not be possible, at first, to use this building for its intended purposes, as classes will have to be accommodated there while the succeeding phases are underway.

Following, or perhaps even before completion of Phase 1, we will move on to Phase 2 - the reconstruction of Anstey Building, which will house the administrative area, accommodation for staff and for an enlarged Sixth Form and Music Room. This will become the main entrance to the School and the car park area on Chancery Lane will be appropriately modified and dignified. Discussions relating to the preliminary drawings will soon take place.

Phase 3 will also begin soon. It is the pulling down of that part of Old Building which currently houses two Form IV classes and the Computer Lab upstairs and two Form Five classes, a bathroom area and the store-room downstairs. The building with the Open Classroom' downstairs and a Form IV above it is, we were very happy to hear, strong enough to remain, so those beautiful archways will still be with us.

You will be wondering just where the displaced Form IV and V students will find their new home. A building is to be constructed in the south west corner of our compound, at the corner of Gordon Street and Keate Street, near the Maritime Life Building. The current Chemistry labs are to form the foundation on which this building will rise. An adjacent wing is likely to house the Business and Language Departments.

And what of the Tuck Shop, you will be asking. What happened to the building heroically constructed almost to the point of completion by our Young Leaders of 1994? That is the saddest part of the whole story. Regrettably, it had to be demolished, to make way for the Environmental Sciences Building. We had no other option but to do this - pulling it down hurt even more than felling the beautiful peltophthera tree where so many parrots roosted every night but, as soon as the site is again available to us, we will replant this and a golden poui to replace that in the North Western corner which succumbed to mealybug attack. And no, we do not plan to starve our students! A new cafeteria is to be built in the north eastern corner, between the Hall and the Keate Street gate.

The remaining phases are more remote, but include the rehousing of the Computer Lab in the area currently used for office and staff room facilities, a much larger Library will take the place of the current staffroom area and the refurbished Home Economics department will utilise the current area, together with that now occupied by the Tuck Shop. The Chapel will be expanded and, we hope, air-conditioned!

All that remains to be mentioned of this outline tour of Project 2000 is the refurbishing of the Hall and New Building - and, one hopes, its renaming!

I know you must realise that this is a very costly undertaking; the school itself has to provide a very significant proportion of the funding, but we refuse to be daunted. At Bishop's, we have always had to work hard to provide all the facilities we require for the young people whose care and education is entrusted to us. But God is always good to us and we have learned that, when fund-raising seems a task of impossible proportions, He will show us the way. We are therefore very grateful for all His goodness to us and for the loyal support of our Hilarian family and our many friends and well-wishers for the assistance given which has allowed us to get this far. But we have much, much further to go and fund-raising will be part of our life for a long time.

You may not be aware that we have to find some $250,000 each year to make up the shortfall between what is provided for us by the Ministry of Finance and what we need for our recurrent expenditure – this is how the monies raised by the annual Bazaar and the School Fund must be utilised.

Amongst the activities planned for this purpose is the Annual Gala Ball, which takes place in May each year. Russell Huggins and his fund-raising committee work very hard to ensure its success - read the details here.

On the last day of term, April 2, we embarked upon a ‘Buy a Brick’ Campaign which was conceived and executed by a small group of concerned parents, working with the Building Committee - our students are using their vacation to sell their books of bricks', so that they can return to us for more on the first day of term! Generous donors have provided attractive incentive prizes to be awarded monthly on both an individual and a class basis, with grand overall prizes in July.

Mrs Judy Chang and the Building Committee have many ideas for further projects - but we need to find some $2-3 million over each of the next three years. Perhaps you may have ideas?

So, now you have concluded that, as usual, Bishop's is begging! No, for the moment, we are just giving you the information and leaving the rest to your collective and individual consciences! But you may like to know how to contact us. Our phone is (868) 623 6591, our fax is (868) 625 7219 and we can be reached by e-mail either through this website bahs@ttemail.com or direct to the School at boffice@wow.net

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Page last updated 1st November 1998