ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica— Leaders at Lewisville High and Aberdeen High, both located in northern St Elizabeth, say their schools have been affected by recent adverse weather conditions.

Principal of Lewisville High Duken Williams said he is concerned about the flooding on the New Market to Westmoreland main road caused by the merging of the Two Sister Ponds located either side of the road.

“Approximately 60 of our students who live in the Darliston section [Westmoreland] are affected…,” he said on Tuesday.

He is worried that persistent, heavy rains will affect the students’ commute for an extended time when all classes resume next Monday.

“The reality is that all the students are not yet at school…I am concerned about the fact that the main route to the institution from the Darliston section is blocked, so the students have to take alternative routes as such it might [affect] the punctuality for those students and so we are really concerned as a school about that,” he said.

He added that the school is focused on completing orientation for new students this week and revamping its breakfast programme.

Chairman of Aberdeen High Anthony Foster said the school’s infrastructure, which was badly damaged during a freak storm on July 2, did not hamper the start of the school year on Monday.

“The only office space that we are really short of now is the principal’s office. The roof would have been replaced for the other building which houses the guidance counsellor’s office and the physical education and mathematics department and the nurse,” he explained.

He said the construction of a new tuck shop is expected to be completed later this week.

“We have to… use a classroom as a tuck shop for the meantime,” he explained.

He didn’t give a timeline, but said the school is slated for an upgrade with more classrooms and offices to be built.

It was, however, a different story for other St Elizabeth schools.

Principal of Maggotty High Sean Graham said students were still coming in for late registration at his school, and is hopeful that Government will build more classrooms for the school.

“We came off shift some years ago and at the time we were the largest school in St Elizabeth at the time, but now our numbers are down to 1,200 and we want this to be a 1,500 school, so we need a new block which they would have promised some time ago,” he said.

Okeshue Bigby, principal of Schoolfield Primary and Infant School located west of Malvern in St Elizabeth, said the institution was off to a smooth start of Monday.

“We have not suffered from the migration crisis with teachers, so we have our full staff complement… “

He said 84 students turned up for classes on Monday and 89 on Tuesday.

Principal of Holland Primary, located west of Santa Cruz, Simone Doctor said she has seen a good turnout of the expected 245 student population.

“Everything went well, smooth sailing and I think what has made the children so comfortable is the summer school…,” she said.

“We had 93 per cent turnout on Monday, so students are coming out,” she added.