St. Benedict Roman Catholic School located in the Toledo Hope/Indianville Area of Punta Gorda Town and was inaugurated on October 17, 2005. This mono-grade school began as a result of the Roman Catholic management’s observation that the students from this area (primarily the infants) had to commute a long distance to get to school.
Initially, two grades/classes was offered – Infant I and II. The school began under the administration of Ms. Olive Woodye who taught Infant I and her assistant teacher Mrs. Martina Alvarez teaching Infant II. Each year, the staff along with the parents and members of the Belize Defense Force constructed the different rooms to accommodate the classes. Funding for the rooms came from Fr. Tony Ryan, SJ, parents, and other local and international donors. The school has eight grades/classes (Infant I to Standard VI.)
St. Benedict School was granted a non-teaching principal in April 2012.
St. Benedict Staff presently has one floating principal and nine teachers. The present enrollment of our school is two hundred twenty-nine students, with an estimated ninety percent being of Maya decent. The remaining ten percent are of Garifuna, East Indian, Creole and Mestizo decent.
St. Benedict School consists of five building which hosts all eight grades/classes, one library/computer laboratory, and an incomplete preschool concrete building. These buildings are on an estimated four acre of land. Four of the five buildings are of concrete walls with zinc roofing. The fifth is of wooden structure with zinc roofing.
Our classrooms host approximately thirty students which fill these buildings to capacity. During the dry season or even on a hot day, our students and teacher punish with the heat throughout the day. Due to this dilemma windows were placed in these classrooms but were temporarily placed with wooden louvers. These louvers are now old and falling out which entertain thieves to enter the building twice recently. With this said, we are in urgent need to replace these wooden louver with metal louvers. Please help us!
Description rate total
Dismantle the existing windows 1 ls. community service
Double metal louvers for 3 windows $575.00 each $1725.00
Single Metal louvers for 2 windows $275.00 each $550.00
Contingency fee $100.00
Total: $2,375.00
Our classrooms are seated in a semi-swamp land that locates near a small creek which water clogs quickly after a short rain. As we all know that Toledo has the most rainfall throughout the year. During the rainy season which is between the months of June and November, our students would walk to school through the water from home and those that are left off by their parents would get their feet wet even before they enter the classroom. On that note, we are trying to install two sidewalks that can accommodate the students to and from their classes to the road side and in front of their classes. We are direly asking for your help.
Description Quantity Rate Total
Excavation for foundation 1 community service
Reinforcement to strip footing 20 lengths $20.00 $400.00
Sand and gravel 13 cy $66.00 $858.00
Cement 50 kg bags 40 bags $20.00 $800.00
lumber 24 lengths $8.00 $192.00
Contingency $100.00
Total: $2,350
During the days of construction of these needy buildings, some materials were donated which was not the correct type for the construction material for the flooring for these classrooms. Today whenever our children are cleaning the classrooms the dust is so thick that it sticks on the charts on the wall. It dusty their chairs and desk and now some huge holes are in the flooring of the building. We are hoping to get some help so we can resurface the flooring with pure cement mixture or if possible get the classrooms tile. We will place the bill of quantities for tiling of the classrooms. Please help!
Description quantity unit rate total
titles 63 boxes $48.00 $3,024.00
Tin set 30 bags $19.75 $592.00
Labor PTA
Total for one classroom: $3,716.50
Total for both classrooms: $7,433.00