Holy Cross Anglican School: Letter to the editor

Letter to the editor - Vernon Wilson

Posted by Holy Cross Anglican School at 3:26 PM

Letter to the editor featured in this weeks San Pedro Sun.

It is long overdue time for an update of what is happening at Holy Cross Anglican School. I think as the director of Holy Cross School my decisions need to be made based on information I collect from the people of San Pedro as well as my personal observations. It is through the input of the people of San Pedro that I base my decisions on as far as the direction of what we at the school are doing and planning for the future of our school and the work we are doing with the Ministry of Education.

I think that it is important for people to be a part of the decision making process. That is one reason we require our upper grade students to read the news paper each week and do a report on what they read. The need to make decisions based on facts not hearsay. They will be the adults of the future.

It is also why I have been working with CNU college in USA and the Minister of Education in Belize to bring CNU's marine biology department and set up a study of mangroves and the micro biology associated with them. They will be at my request setting up a farm to grow mangroves for transplanting to other areas of the island to help replace what the developers are destroying by clear cutting of the mangroves. This project has been in the works for just over 2 years. It is scheduled to start this year. We have at the school started a transplanting project ourselves and have been monitoring the success of it for the last 2 years.

We will also be pioneering the transplanting of sea grasses in Belize to help replace the sea grasses which will be displaced by dredging for sand for piers, landings, and people running their boats around.

We are very involved with the minister of Education in setting up these programs as we as a college course for teachers using our new computer lab to help them be able to obtain their Associate Teachers Degrees without leaving the island or their teaching jobs.

There are plans to build a cat 5 hurricane shelter permanant school structure in the future. We also have plans to build a health post and child counselling center. (The counselling center will be opening in Sept). We have the only school in the country with a dental post for children (which is totally free to the children) and the only school in the country with a full time nurse on staff.
We have more plans for educational related projects and would be happy to share then with anyone who would like to come by the school and talk with us and help in what ever way you can.

We have 500 Students registered for this Sept. and have turned down over 200 this summer due to lack of space and finances. There is a great need for good affordable education on the island and we will strive our best at supplying it to our children.

On a personal note some background info on myself: I was one of the founders of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia and we as a group started educating the people about the damage that was being done to the eco system in Chesapeake Bay. We worked with Virginia Marine institute and did extensive study and research on sea grasses and the transplanting of them to restore the health of the bay. The bay has gone through a wonderful transformation since we started the foundation.

I have been working in Belize with the fishing associations educating them in the use of circle hooks and catch and release of bill fish. I have been working with the Fishery Ministry in Belize City for the last 5 years on various projects associated with research and policy development as related to recreational fishing in Belize.

If anyone would like more information on any of the project we at Holy Cross or myself are involved in, I am usually available at the school 6 - 7 days a week. Please feel free to stop by talk and see what we are doing anytime. The school's phone # is 226-3456

Sincerely
Vernon Wilson
Director of Holy Cross Anglican School