MONTEGO BAY, St James — Administrators at Cornwall College yesterday worked fev
erishly to address health department concerns that led to the temporary closure of the school’s kitchen and tuck shop that pushed classes online.

Parish manager for St James Health Department Lennox Wallace told the Jamaica Observer that his team is working with school officials to correct the breaches, in an effort to resume face-to-face classes on Friday.

“We had some challenges with the kitchen and tuck shop so we are working with them to see if they can take corrective measures for us to open as soon as possible,” he said.

Wallace noted that the school has been cooperating with the health department in an effort to fix the areas of concern.

“I can tell you that they are complying. They are working with us and we are working with them to ensure that we can resume face-to-face classes as soon as tomorrow,” Wallace said on Thursday.

Dr Michelle Pinnock, regional director for the Ministry of Education’s Region Four, confirmed that every effort is being made to address the concerns raised by the Public Health Department.

“We are doing some clean-up. Public Health [Department] came in and told us that we need to do some stuff, so we are using today [Thursday] to do that,” she told the Observer.

Efforts to get a comment from the school principal, Michael Ellis, were unsuccessful as he was said to be locked in a meeting with stakeholders when the news team visited the school.

In an internal memorandum seen by the Observer, school officials on Thursday advised parents of the need to halt in-person tutelage so as to “address an urgent internal issue affecting our operations”.

The memo said, “We sincerely apologise for the unexpected changes to the school arrangements. We are working diligently to resolve this matter and hope to resume face-to-face classes as soon as possible.”

Established in 1896 and located on Orange Street in Montego Bay, St James, Cornwall College is a public high school for boys.