Progress report Global Grant project Sint Maarten April 2023

Progress report Exceptional School project Sint Maarten – Global Grant 18 68450
Sister Marie Laurence Primary School

update 20^th April 2023

Authors: Tanja Frederiks-Vliegen, John Caputo, Gert-Jan van Dommelen

In June 2022 the Sint Maarten Government and the World Bank have signed a US $26.8 million grant agreement for the Fostering Resilient Learning Project, which aims a.o. to rebuild the Sister Marie Laurence (SML) school. Today we are expecting the start of the demolishing and rebuilding of the school after a successful tender process in the past months.

We are happy to report the achievements since March 2022 and the progress made.

Some noteworthy highlights:

1.

In June 2022, the agreement had been signed with World Bank to rebuild the Sister Marie Laurence School. This year the tender process took place under management of the NRPB. We expect the demolition can start in May 2023, which would allow for construction to commence in Q3 2023 and the reopening of the new school in June 2025.

2.	The on-site review of the Rotary Foundation Cadre Georgina Rivera-Singletary has been finalized in June 2022 with a positive and constructive review report. See the report in Appendix III.

3.

A Training & Development visit took place in Florida during the month of October 2022. The premise of the visit to Florida was to lay the foundation of a relationship with various organizations in the USA. The idea is that future travel will include teachers and staff of the SML school to Florida, and vice-versa (Florida-based professionals to Sint Maarten) to further expand on a revised Training & Development (T&D) plan. Budget approved and used for the expenses was $6,647.68. See the report in Appendix IV The TRF Cadre Mrs. Rivera was instrumental in establishing the necessary connections and organizations for the various meetings, and she accompanied the participants during the entire visit in Florida. The visit to Florida was successful, meaningful and productive. The representatives of the various US-based organizations were eager and willing to possibility create a collaboration between their own organization and the SML school:

a.	Saint Leo University

b.	University of South Florida – College of Behavioral & Community Sciences: Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC) and Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD)

c.	Lacoochee Elementary School

d.	Morning Star School

e.	Florida Council for Exceptional Children – 2022 Conference held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Theme: Riding the Waves of Change: Reimagining Special Education in Changing Times.

4.

On March 24th, 2023, the Grand Opening of Sint Maarten’s 1st Multi-Functional Recreational Park was held. This Recreational Park, which consists of basketball court, a playground and a garden, is located in Middle Region, next to the Sister Marie Laurence Primary School. These facilities form part of the new Exceptional School – Sister Marie Laurence which will reopen as soon as the new school building has been constructed. Please see the report in Appendix V and this video.

Sincerely,

Tanja Frederiks-Vliegen, Project Manager, Foundation Catholic Education St. Maarten

A.J.C. Brouwers Road 6, Philipsburg, St. Maarten

John Caputo, Past President Rotary Club Sint Maarten, Coordinator Hotsing Sponsor Club

Gert-Jan van Dommelen, Past President Rotary Club Huizen Gooimeer

Coordinator on behalf of the International Sponsor Rotary Clubs participating in the Global Grant.

Appendix I: Global Grant information

On 6 September 2017 Hurricane Irma hit St. Maarten with immense force.
The Sister Marie Laurence Primary School suffered extensive damage due the
passing of Hurricane Irma, and consequently was entirely looted and
completely vandalized, leaving behind literally just the shell of the school.

Twelve International Rotary Clubs decided to support the “Exceptional School”

project for the Sister Marie Laurence Primary school with funds and vocational

support. The related Global Grant 18.68450 has been approved by The Rotary

Foundation in October 2018. The Project description can be found in appendix II.

The Global Grant has three parts:

1.	Outside Community Space of the school: basketball court, playground and garden community space

2.	New school designed to facilitate inclusive education and multi-functional purposes like community building and hurricane shelter. The Rotary Global Grant supports refurbishment and equipment for the new school.

3.	Training and education program to enable inclusive education.

Project progress has been slow, due to delays of the agreements between the governments of The Netherlands, Sint Maarten and the World Bank, new elections, lack of resources and the Covid-19 pandaemia. Despite the delay there are now positive developments:

1.

The establishment of the Outside Community Space of the school has been completed. Kick-off of the construction was on 6th March 2020, the Basketball court has been realized in August 2020, maintained by the School board and in use by the youth of the community of Middle Region. Currently the playground and Garden Community Space have now been finished and the reopening has taken place on March 24th, 2023.

2.	On June 15th, 2022 the agreement had been signed with the World Bank. Preparations for the process of rebuilding the school have started and the tendering process is now finished so the actual demolishing and rebuilding of the new school can start.

3.	The first training to 13 teachers and staff members of the School has been completed in October 2019. A second training took place in October 2022.

The twelve Participating Rotary Clubs are:

1.	Hosting Sponsor Club Sint Maarten (District 7020)

2.	Coordinating International Sponsor Club Huizen Gooimeer (NL, District 1570)

3.	International Sponsor Club Eindhoven Zuid (NL, District 1550)

4.	International Sponsor Club Wuppertal (Germany, District 1810)

5.	International Sponsor Club Arendonk (Belgium, District 1630-10)

6.	International Sponsor Club Bodegraven (NL, District 1570)

7.	International Sponsor Club Wall Street (New York USA, District 7230)

8.	International Sponsor Club Singer Island (Florida USA, District 6930)

9.	International Sponsor Club St. Catharines (Canada, District 7090)

10.	International Sponsor Club St. Catharines-Lakeshore (Canada, District 7090)

11.	International Sponsor Club Niagara Falls (Canada, District 7090)

12.	International Sponsor Club Waterdown (Canada, District 7090).

Appendix II: The Exceptional School project

This project is to restore inclusive education on Sint Maarten and it is also a great opportunity for the community of Middle Region and for the children to get a new perspective for social and economic development. It is about hope, energy and collaboration to make a better future. While safeguarding transparency, fairness and sustainability in all aspects, this is about passion for the people that need this.

We have designed a school that will be future proof taking into mind several key thoughts and aspects.  The classroom design and layout will be complimentary to the "Exceptional Education" format that the school will pilot; this transformation being a major part of the Global Grant. We also have added a parent's room, where parents can come and use a computer, internet, printer, etc. with the hope that they will be a more active participant in the school.  A community room will allow the Community Council to meet and host events for the overall betterment of the neighborhood as a whole. The school and the outside area will be a multi-functional center and will also serve as hurricane shelter for the community of Middle Region. The Sister Marie Laurence School is designed as a ‘hurricane resistant’ building.

The plan is to create a school and surrounding that is the heart of this depressed neighborhood and an environment that the population will protect and have pride in rather than loot and further damage like what happened after the passing of Irma and Maria. The schools are more than just educational buildings, they also represent central meeting points and are catalyst of higher quality of life in the Antillean districts. 

 

There has been great support and excitement from the teachers as well as the parents.  We had community briefings where we informed of the progress and the future plans were unveiled and discussed.

The children of Sister Marie Laurence

Since September 2018, the children of the Sister Marie Laurence have been distributed over two other schools, see below. Although difficult because of limited space, long travel times for children and parents, the relocation was possible because many children left the island after hurricane Irma (about 75 children from the Sister Marie Laurence school), however these children now return to Sint Maarten and there is a high need for the new school.

The students and staff of the Sister Marie Laurence Primary School were initially spread of two other Catholic schools, but are now all together as a school family at the St. Dominic Primary School. All the groups (1-8) are now housed in one building at this other school facility.

The children of group 1-6 located at the St. Dominic Primary School

The children of group 7-8 located at the Sister Magda Primary School (Dutch lessons)

Appendix III:
Site Visit Cadre Review June 2022: report available on request

 

Appendix IV:

Grand Opening of Sint Maarten’s 1st Multi-Functional Recreational Park

On March 24th, 2023, the Grand Opening of Sint Maarten’s 1st Multi-Functional Recreational Park was held. This Recreational Park, which consists of basketball court, a beautiful playground and a peaceful garden, is located in Middle Region, next to the Sister Marie Laurence Primary School. These facilities form part of the new Exceptional School – Sister Marie Laurence which will reopen as soon as the new school building has been constructed.

During the Ceremony, Project Manager of Foundation Catholic Education Sint Maarten, Tanja Frederiks-Vliegen, elaborated on the fact that the district of Middle Region was severely damaged with the passing of the hurricanes in 2017. Not only in the physical, infrastructural and financial sense, but also in the social and emotional sense. Some substantial action would be needed to give this community a positive vision for the future which would include pride, comfort and human connections. “Our Sister Marie Laurence Primary School is located in this community. Persons will say that it is a privilege for a community to have a school in their midst, and this is correct. However, we also see it from the other point of view, namely that it is a privilege for a school to be a part of a community, to be in(side) a community, and to be surrounded and embraced by the members of this community. With the Foundation Catholic Education Sint Maarten being a stakeholder in this community, what could we as an organization do, together with our strategic partners such as the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten and Rotary Club Huizen-Gooimeer and the architect Mr. Lyongo Juliana of OZ Caribbean, to help uplift the district of Middle Region?”, mentioned Tanja Frederiks.

The aim was to create a new community-based school with amazing facilities which would uplift Middle Region on a Social, Educational and Recreational level. Five months after Hurricane Irma, the Foundation Catholic Education Sint Maarten submitted a request for funding via the World Bank/Trust Fund to rebuild the Sister Marie Laurence Primary School. In sticking to the motto of the government to “Build Back Better”, this new school would be very innovatively designed, be built much stronger and offer a much better and conducive learning and working landscape for both the students and staff by having the necessary facilities in place to focus on a true holistic development of the students so that they can reach their fullest potential. This new community school would offer the much-needed uplifting in Middle Region on an Educational level. The land adjacent to the school, where an old basketball court was located which was constructed in the 1990’s by the then-school principal Mr. Henri Brookson, would be the ideal place to focus on creating new facilities by means of an extension of this new community school, to uplift Middle Region on Social and Recreational level. “Keeping both the students as well as the community members of Middle Region in mind as being the beneficiaries or users of these facilities, the creation of different areas would be needed, which would offer different kinds of activities targeting different age groups. The idea of this ambitious and innovative project of the Multi-Functional Recreational Park came to life in 2018, and because of its size and complexity, and the need to find different sources of funding, it took almost 4.5 years to complete these professionally designed and engineered facilities which can be used during the day and now also during the evening hours as the lights have been added to the street light network, thanks to the Ministry of VROMI and NV G.E.B.E.

The Recreational Park now offers a multitude of possible activities such as recreation, socializing, sports, exercising, relaxing, playing, and unwinding. As stated by Dr. Marlon Halley, President of the School Board, “This Recreational Park will be available for the students and teachers during school hours to help maximize their educational and social development and offer a safe outdoor environment where they can build life-long skills such as social skills, cooperation skills, communication skills and problem-solving skills. The Recreational Park is also open to the community after school hours”. The Foundation encourages all users of the Recreational Park to do their part in keeping the premises clean and presentable by disposing of their garbage properly, and by treating the facility with care to ensure its sustainability.

Executive Director of the Foundation, Mrs. Lilia Aventurin-Hodge thanked the following organizations for their financial contributions which helped realize this Recreational Park: the Dutch Disaster Fund, R4CR and the Sint Maarten Trust Fund/NRPB, Rotary Club of Sint Maarten and the 10 other international Rotary Clubs in Canada, the USA, Holland, Belgium and Germany which contributed to the Rotary Global Grant, St. Maarten Development Fund, The Netherlands Red Cross, the Municipality of Amsterdam, Stay Strong SXM, N.V. G.E.B.E. and Windward Roads B.V. The Dutch Disaster Fund, under the leadership of Rene Grotenhuis (may he rest in peace) was an immensely important catalyst in the success of this project and Rotary Global Grant funds were utilized in all three areas of the Recreational Park.

The following businesses and individuals were thanked for their donations and/or assistance provided: Captivate Construction & Cleaning, Sherwin Williams, CGC (Caribbean General Contractors), Domino’s, Mr. Jerry Speetjens, the Chittick family, Caribbean Palms, Dijtham Antillean Paint, Lletybro’s Electrical Company N.V., SXM Doet, FKG Rigging, and Dow’s Musical Foundation.

The ceremony included a prayer and a blessing of the new facilities by Rev. Father Johannes, and the unveiling of a new dedication sign at the basketball court to honor Middle Region stalwart Alexander Richardson, a.k.a. Alec the Butcher. The playground and the garden were dedicated to Rosalinda Connor, however, in keeping with the wishes of the family this will be dedicated to Ms. Connor’s grandmother Lilian Adina Ellis and her great-grandmother Henrietta Walters (who were the original facilitators in allowing the Foundation to utilize the parcels of land for both the school as well as the Recreational Park) in the hopefully not too distant future during the Grand Opening of the new Sister Marie Laurence Primary School. As a token of appreciation, Project Manager Tanja Frederiks-Vliegen received with a beautiful plaque from Foundation Catholic Education Sint Maarten in honor and recognition of her outstanding commitment and distinguished service in the realization of the Multi-Functional Recreational Park. The Foundation was grateful for the presence of His Excellency Governor Ajamu Baly, the teachers and staff of SKOS and Sister Marie Laurence Primary School, the representatives of the various funding agencies, the invited guests, the Community Council of Middle Region/Defiance and the community members of Middle Region.

Appendix V:

Training & Development Visit Florida October 2022

Preface:

In June 2022 there was a very successful and inspirational visit of the Rotary Technical Cadre. The Rotarian that visited Sint Maarten, and the Exceptional School project in particular, was Mrs. Georgina Rivera-Singletary. Mrs. Rivera has a deep affinity with, and lots of expertise in, (special) education. She was much inspired with the project (and the school/foundation in turn were much inspired by her enthusiasm), and she offered her assistance, expertise and network to assist with the Training & Development program for the Exceptional School – Sister Marie Laurence (SML school). The Global Grant includes a line item for Education Conferences, and based on this segment of the Global Grant the funds were requested and approved for a Training & Development opportunity in Florida during the month of October 2022.

USA vs. the Netherlands options:

The premise of the visit to Florida was to lay the foundation of a relationship with various organizations in the USA. The idea is that future travel will include teachers and staff of the SML school to Florida, and vice-versa (Florida-based professionals to Sint Maarten) to further expand on a revised Training & Development (T&D) plan. The plan is to gear a bit more towards the US market for certain T&D aspects; the complete SML school (all grade levels) has now transitioned into English as the language of instruction. This situation was different in 2017 when the original project plan and Training & Development plan were created as there were still several grades with Dutch as the language of instruction. This means that the staff are now for the most part native English speakers. The USA option is a more cost-effective option in terms of travel, and it is a closer-to-home option. There is (still) a staff turnover issue at SML, and this needs to be kept into consideration.

Representatives of the school participating:

Due to the COVID traveling restrictions which still in effect in the USA, unfortunately only 2 of the intended 4 persons were able to travel and participate in this initiative. Mrs. Jacqueline Greene (Superintendent of the school) and Mrs. Tanja Frederiks (Project Manager of the project) traveled to Florida. Mrs. Rivera was instrumental in establishing the necessary connections and organizations for the various meetings, and she accompanied the participants during the entire visit in Florida.

Goals:

The specific goals during this orientation visit included:
1. Start networking and building a relationship with US-based organizations which could assist with staff Training & Development and the student-based behavior programs

2. View the operations at the two elementary schools and see if those schools would be willing and able to team up to do exchange programs for teachers and to learn best practices

3. Attend the Florida Council for Exceptional Children conference and attend classes and gain insights and ideas.

** please note that the term “exceptional” in the US has a bit of a different meaning than the word “exceptional” which forms part of the school’s new name.

Outcomes:

The entire visit to Florida was extremely successful, meaningful and productive. The representatives of the various US-based organizations were eager and willing to possibility create a collaboration between their own organization and the SML school.

 

Connections with US-based organizations:

1.	Saint Leo University

At SLU, the team met with various strategic persons:

·

Georgina Rivera-Singletary, Associate Professor of Graduate Education (main message: I am ready to assist the SML school whenever and wherever I can! Possible training opportunities include a collaboration with Saint Leo University during which the following (but not limited to) topics can be addressed: Educational Leadership, Student Differentiation, Engagement Strategies, Teacher Support, Mentoring/Coaching. If the team were to come to Sint Maarten, many hands-on learning activities would be included, direct feedback after observations, and modeling sessions)

·

Fern Aefsky, Director of Graduate Studies in Education (key messages: persons are at different stages in their lives and they must be met at that level – both students and well as staff. In Professional Development, the staff should identify their needs. If training is provided, it is important to model the situations, allow for implementation and monitoring and to follow up and give guidance and support to make the needed adjustments. Parent University, workshops for parents which can focus on all kinds of services/issues related to family life. Encourage participation with raffle prizes or vouchers for food/gas etc.)

·

Michael Bailey, Director of Career and Accessibility Services (key messages: identify the pieces of the puzzle for the creation of the Exceptional School, bring all the pieces under one umbrella and plan backwards to see which steps need to be taken to realize the specific outcomes. On-going coaching is very important in Professional Development; break it down into smaller pieces and narrow it down into smaller goals/interventions. Have targeted intervention periods – training needs to be followed by teachers putting the skills/knowledge into practice, which should then be followed by observation. This provides an opportunity for support/guidance to tweak the skill as needed and teachers should continue practicing towards mastery).

2.	University of South Florida – College of Behavioral & Community Sciences

Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC)

·

Don Kincaid, Director Florida’s Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support & Co-Director FCIC (key messages: don’t just train the teachers, but also ensure there is a support system as you need the capacity to maintain sustainability (e.g. coaches). Central piece of the success of PBIS is consistent leadership and buy-in from the leadership. PBIS is as much about changing the behavior of the adults as it is about changing the behavior of the students. Students can come from poverty and unstable households, but at school we need to create a different environment – and students can and will adapt to this different environment. Recommendation for SML if PBIS will be used: retrain the entire staff and start again from Tier 1)

Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD)

·	Ellie Weber, Assistant Program Director CARD (key messages: restructure how staff approaches student diversity and change the mindset of the staff on how the classroom should look like. Educate the environment/community how to deal with autism)

3.	Lacoochee Elementary School

·

Latoya Jordan, School Principal This school was chosen as it resembles the SML school in various ways, specifically the student profile and their previous struggles within their school. Their success of climbing upwards from a position of low student performance and a culture which included having low expectations of students, to a school with higher student grades and a strong, dedicated and focused staff, is remarkable. The school leader, who has been in her position since 2013, played a key role in shifting the mindset of the staff and raising to the bar in terms of students performance and creating a school environment where good behavior was taught (by the teachers and staff) and delivered (by the students). Besides the school principal, two staff members shared their views and experiences as well on their journey of becoming a much more student-centered school. The Lachoochee Team has indicated that it is very much interested in creating a partnership with the Exceptional School. (key messages/observations: to create a different culture in the school: “change your words, change your mindset”. As a team, they needed to start eliminating the excuses when it came to low student performance. Once this was done, the perspective really shifted. A culture mindset shift – not because the students come from poverty, this is how they are going to be and how they are going to perform. Be fair towards the parents and their parental involvement – they all have jobs and cannot be as involved as we expect them to be. This school is not officially executing the PBIS system, but does work based on some of the PBIS aspects. There is clarity when it comes to the expectations of good behavior. Intrinsic motivation with good behavior is more important than the tokens of good behavior earned with the traditional use of PBS. The teachers all have very subtle but effective tier 1 behavior programs in place in their classroom. The teacher is the one that has to foster the culture in the classroom for the students so that they know what is expected of them. They saw a big shift in student performance/behavior when they had all the teachers write out their expectations for every transition, what teachers were going to do, what they wanted the students to do, and what they would do if the students didn’t comply. They would monitor and if they would see that routines and expectations were not tight, those teachers would be invited for professional development. They created a team culture with the students, so that they started to hold each other accountable for their actions/behavior. “As a team, we can’t control the home environment, but we can control out school environment. We can’t blame the parents or the home environment…we need to spend a lot of time to teach the students on the behavior expectations. Give it time, and it will work. But do not use the home environment as a reason why it can’t work at school”. Foster a sense in which all students are embraced by the team).

 

4.	Morning Star School

·

Eileen Odom, School Principal This school was chosen as it specializes in educating students with learning disabilities and related learning challenges. They have small classes of 10-12 students who receive individualized education and attention. This school was selected as a School of Excellence by the respective association in the USA. Besides the school principal, many staff members gave their feedback as well, and it was encouraging to witness the pride the staff members have in their school, their students and colleagues, and in their system. The Morning Star Team has indicated that it is very much interested in creating a partnership with the Exceptional School. (key messages/observations: they focus on ingraining the thinking of “They Can” vs. “They Can’t” amongst the various staff members. The staff helps out in various areas and sharing the loads, and focusing on using the strengths of the various team members. There is a behavior specialist who is attached to the school and is there every day. They have personnel on staff to deal with the students whose behaviors become too disruptive. They are removed from the classroom and supported in another area of the school (the cool down room/sensory room) where they can de-escalate and transition successfully back into the classroom afterwards. They don’t tell the students “they are in trouble”, but they say “this is a break to talk about why we are not be successful right now”. The teacher that is stationed in this sensory room also teaches social skills. With their staff turnover issues, they have a “New Teacher PLC Meeting” and they focus on this every month to help the new teachers become familiar with the programs. The school uses the Zones of Regulation Program (RADAR Trap). They added in one more color – blue – because they felt they needed another step. Activities were colour coded throughout the school, by subject in folder. For example, all Science Subject content was a particular colour. They emphasized the importance of movement. Students may get PE 3 to 4 times in the week.

Florida Council for Exceptional Children – 2022 Conference held in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Theme: Riding the Waves of Change: Reimagining Special Education in Changing Times.

Although this conference was focused mostly on education statistics in Florida, this conference provided really interesting data which corresponds with the Sint Maarten status of affairs within education system as well. Many of the issues they face in Florida (e.g. the growth in the number of students showing signs of autism, teacher shortages, the rise in the number of students with learning disabilities etc.), are also faced in Sint Maarten. The keynote speaker’s topic and the various general sessions were very informative and offered good insights. Going into the details of all the general sessions attended goes beyond the purpose of this report (although summaries of all the sessions attended have been prepared), however, here follows a short overview of some of the relevant sessions that were attended:

Keynote Address:

	Literacy For All

General Sessions:

	Down the Rabbit Hole of Executive Functioning & The Maze Surrounding Learning Disabilities

	Social Behavior Program Pilot – The 5 Year Journey

(also facilitated by a Saint Leo University colleague, Mr. David Scanga)

	Building a Culture of Acceptance Through Classroom and Whoel School SEL

	Supporting Special Needs in the Classroom; Teaching ‘Tools not Toys’.

	Parents as Team Players

	Special Education Teacher Burnout: Six Domains of the Work Environment

Contact was established with certain vendors as well as speakers who the participants thought would be able provide possible services to the Exceptional School.

 

Action Points:

·	Share the September 2022 SML staff survey with Mrs. Rivera (note: an extensive staff survey was held prior to the Florida visit to assist with creating a new point of departure in terms of the current realities of the current staff members).

·	Discuss the SML staff survey results with the SML school management and subsequentially with the entire Team

·	Encourage the bottom-up approach when it comes to the creation of the new Training & Development plan (version 2).

·

Based on the feedback of the SML staff, and together with Mrs. Rivera, start sketching a new Training & Development plan based on the priorities of the staff (development) and the traveling possibilties of both the US-based organizations as well as the SML staff. This plan can span the period of the next 36 months.

Expenses:

Below is a break down of the expenses incurred for this Training & Development opportunity: