20 years of coexistence are on the line as the Management of St. Peter Claver Primary School in Punta Gorda has written to the Claver Adult and Continuing Education management team notifying them a move is necessary. The letter seeks to evict the extension education programme and gives them until June 30, 2020 to find a new home for the students, teachers and programmes. The letter has left the programme's management a bit dumbfounded and they now hope the public can help. Today, via telephone we reached out the Director of the Adult and Continuing Education programme in Punta Gorda. He told us that the letter dated May 20, 2019 has found them trying to dialogue with no solution as yet.:
Voice of: Dave Forman, Director, CCE, Evening Division
"The priest who signed the letter on behalf of the parish is saying that they need the space for the primary school students."
Reporter
"It would seem if the primary school meets during the day time and the evening division meets in the evening, isn't there a way to co-exist?"
Voice of: Dave Forman
"That was one of the main suggestions that we had tabled, but that one has not been entertained by the other party, but yes we would consider that as an option and we think it would be an amicable way to do things."
The Evening Division was the brainchild of Father Leo Weber - the priest responsible for the Parish some 20 years ago. He along with some volunteers had worked to identify funding for the building and set its usage as for an evening division. So, many years, many principals and many boards of directors later, the current lead team for the evening division has not been able to identify if any written agreement was signed in relation to the use and designation of the building.
Voice of: Dave Forman, Director, CCE, Evening Division
"We cannot locate any in our offices and so if there is any of that documented in the parish's office we would not know, but as far as we know a lot of it had to do with understanding, verbal agreements and kinda how things were done. We are going to consult the community. We are now sanitizing the public. That is where we are. We have a lot of past graduates from the program who have really benefitted who may want to contribute and maybe make suggestions. We also have past directors and teachers who would want to be involved in the discussion."
We reached out to the Parish Priest Father Matt Ruhl to find out what is the reason behind the eviction. Fr. Ruhl responded saying that the request to have the evening division relocate has really comes out of a dire need for the primary school. He said that he has a couple buildings for the primary school that have fallen in serious disrepair and has been facing complaints from teachers and parents. He added that there is no written agreement for the use of the building or for how long that was to be and he believes that a 17 year partnership is sufficient enough for the evening division to have planned for its future. While he said it would be nice if both management teams could work together to find mutually beneficial options to solve both their problems, he maintained that go they must.
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