MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Students at Belair High are feeling the brunt of what is now a legal matter between the Government and private owners of the property on which it sits, as they no longer have access to sporting facilities and an auditorium that are also on the property here.

The matter took centre stage last Thursday when the school’s Parent-Teacher Association President Ricardo Hayles expressed the plight of students, including footballers reportedly having to walk miles to a playing field as they do not have access to the one on the property due to an ongoing lease agreement issue between the property owners and the Ministry of Education.

Hayles highlighted the issues facing the students to Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon during a tour of the high school last Thursday.

Belair High was established in 1967 to serve the children of bauxite workers, evolving from Manchester Preparatory School with support from Alcan. In 2014, the high school became a grant-aided institution with an annual average population of 800 students.

“The concern that we are having from a parent standpoint, and even the sports standpoint, is that at this present time we don’t have an auditorium, we don’t have a field. The sporting programme in the school has been suffering tremendously. The lack of use of the field, the footballers, for example, had to walk three, four miles every day for training,” Hayles said.

A multi-purpose court, which is situated between the high school and Belair Early Childhood and Preparatory School, has also been off limits for students from the secondary school.

“The basketball team went to the semi-finals and they were unable to train or play games that should have been hosted here at Belair, and…it demoralised the players,” Hayles told Morris Dixon.

He added that even the students’ physical education classes have been hampered.

For clarity, Manchester Central Member of Parliament Rhoda Crawford interjected.

“What is the issue with the field and the auditorium that is on property?” Crawford asked.

Hayles was cautious in explaining that he was not aware of all the details, but asked that the issues be resolved.

“As it relates to the issue, it has to do with the internal [matters], not so much the Belair High School itself, it has to do with internal matters regarding taxes, I was told,” he said.

Ministry of Education director for region Five Susan Nelson Smith responded to Hayles’ concern, informing him and others — including school administrators — that the matter is now a legal issue.

“The matter is being addressed. It is a legal matter between the owners of the property. As you know, this school was once private, so the ministry’s legal unit, we have it to work through and we are expecting to sort it out… but we understand the situation we face,” she said.

Hayles, in expressing frustration, said the process is taking too long: “While I totally understand, it has been over a year.”

Morris Dixon then promised to “expedite” the matter.

“I am looking forward to you, Minister, to expedite this. The school is being held back by not partaking in sports,” he said.

Morris Dixon then told stakeholders that the Government is committed to resolving the issue.

“You have my commitment that I will follow through…in that kind of situation you know, when the Government takes over a private school, we learnt that there are different nuances and there are some legal matters that we have to take care of, but we are committed to doing that,” she said.

Responding to a question posed by the Jamaica Observer, Morris Dixon said the situation is not unique to Belair High School.

“We have had some private schools that have been taken over by the Government and that has happened in many different situations. This is not the only school where you would have had that. Of course, if you have a school that is in private hands when the Government takes it over, you know they would own certain assets and so on. We have to figure out which assets go: are you selling the assets to the Government or are you leasing those assets to the Government of Jamaica? And so that is what is at play here,” she said.

“…In other schools you may have shared facilities, because the private entity may have handed over the high school but not the prep school, and so the Government is operating the high school but the prep school is operated privately, and previously they would have shared resources,” she added.

She said the Ministry of Education is in dialogue with attorneys for the private property owners. She also hinted at infrastructure works for Belair High.

“And so that process of demarcating what are the rules around who owns what, who uses what, and what is the cost of using it is where we are, and that is a legal matter. We actually have to do a lease arrangement with the previous owners and that is now what we are saying, that the lease arrangement is now with the lawyer on the side of the previous owners and the ministry side,” she said.

“It is important that we sign off on it, because there is development work that we need to do here, and that is stymied by that, but you can’t start constructing on something that you don’t have a lease for — that you don’t own,” she added.

Inside the auditorium that is no longer accessible to Belair High students

A multi-purpose court to which Belair High students once had access