Photo By 1st Lt. Kali Gradishar | Construction is approximately two weeks from completion on the Stella Maris School...... read more read more
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BELIZE CITY, Belize - Approximately 3,200 square feet of classrooms at the Stella Maris School Belize Academy for the Deaf built by New Horizons Belize 2014 engineers is scheduled for completion by the first week of June.
New Horizons is an annual exercise providing mutual training opportunities for Belize Defence Force and U.S. military civil engineers as they build new facilities at five locations throughout Belize.
The addition at Stella Maris features facilities that cater to students with various disabilities.
"One building will be for vocational skills - woodworking and sewing skills - that teach life skills through activities that our students are in need of and are interested in," said Maria Newport, acting vice principal at the school. "It has been a dream for our principal to have a room for those skills. It gives us the opportunity to better accomplish the mission and goals of Stella Maris."
With room for only one sewing table at the school, teachers have previously provided sewing courses to teach students basic sewing patterns. Then, with coordination and cooperation from students' parents, they would sell the fabric creations and help each student open a bank account with the profits.
"We couldn't do this without the support of the parents, and the parents are very involved," said Newport. "Not all of these students transition to high school; some of them transition straight into a job site. Sewing and woodworking are great for teaching students practical skills.
"Just because they are students with special needs does not mean that we cannot provide them a valuable education and life skills," she continued.
The new facilities will offer more than an area to teach important vocational skills. The facilities will also ease the stress placed on teachers who have more students in their classes than usual.
"Because we had a building dismantled for the new buildings, the situation has been somewhat overwhelming because of the amount of students in classes," Newport said. "These buildings will alleviate that."
During construction, the school required an increase to approximately 15 students per class. Nearly 130 students currently attend the school, with 24 members on the teaching and administrative staff.
"Having 15 students with special needs in each class may be sufficient; but to target each students' specific needs, that can be overwhelming," Newport explained. "Some students need more assistance than others. We can focus on everybody in the class, but when we do that the education cannot be as individualized.
"We prefer to have no more than 12 students for every two teachers in a classroom," she said.
After more than two months of manual labor, approximately 4,000 concrete blocks, and buckets of mortar and other materials, the building is so near completion. The buildings will be ready for use for the next school year.
"This has been some fast construction. We're about three weeks ahead of schedule," said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Piotr Wilk, project manager for the construction site. "We have an expected completion date of 6 June, but we might be done before that."
The best part about it for Wilk and other civil engineers working at the site are the children, watching as their new classrooms are being built.
"They're pretty cool kids. They always have these big ole smiles on their faces. When you see that, you can't help but have a good day, too," Wilk said. "They've seen us salute when [New Horizons leadership] comes by, and they picked that up. Now they'll salute us on our way out."
The new buildings will offer space for the three additional classes, as well as the vocational classes; plus, both buildings will be wheelchair accessible to cater to all students who attend Stella Maris.
"The ramp will be of great use. We don't want to limit any of our students," said Newport.
The New Horizons additions will be welcome floor space for the students and staff, and parents also seem to be pleased, according to Newport.
"The parents we've communicated with are happy," said Newport, "and we are so grateful."
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2014 15:21 |
| Story ID: | 130982 |
| Location: | BELIZE CITY, BZ |
| Web Views: | 688 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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