Just before the COVID pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, we were discussing overdue plans to add more classrooms, to accommodate our growing secondary school attendance. Unable to travel to Haiti to finalize our plans, we authorized Fr. Leon to get temporary classrooms built, even if we knew they’d only be needed for a year or two.
Using local help and very limited funds, he was able to complete
in just a few weeks, 5 small classrooms that could handle some
of our pre-school and younger primary grades. This relieved some of our immediate crowding, although it still left us with having
to use 4 more temporary partitioned rooms we had created in
our chapel/multi-purpose building.
As we entered the 2021-2022 school year and realized we’d soon be graduating our first group of students from secondary school, the board decided that it was impractical for Hands for Haiti to attempt to offer college learning. Instead, the decision was made to create a trade or vocational school to help students acquire career training and job skills.
Specific courses and curriculum for the trade school are still being discussed, but it seemed prudent to include classrooms for them in our next phase of construction, once we could get to Tremessee again to survey our grounds and lay out the necessary buildings. This proposed expansion would be the largest In our history, and we’re excited about the opportunities this will provide St. Marc students.
