Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd met on Sunday with Pastors Paul Scavella, Peter Joseph, and C. Melvin Lewis of the South Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist to discuss issues arising from the ongoing refurbishment of the Bahamas Academy school site on Wulff Road.
In a statement from the Ministry of Education, it was noted that despite the fact that a lease agreement had been drawn up, the same had not been signed by the ministry after more than two years of occupation, renovation, and construction on the site of Bahamas Academy.
Further, the church had not been paid any rent or received any other monies nor was it in any manner involved with any financial transactions relating to the ministry’s occupation, renovation, and construction.
Pastor Scavella stated that the Seventh-day Adventist Church had only tried in good faith, having been approached by the Ministry of Education, to assist in providing an identified venue to address the specific needs of the ministry.
He further said that when it became apparent that the agreed scope of work was being extended, without consultation by the ministry, he had intervened to stop further work until the matters were regularized.
The minister thanked the clergymen for their obvious sincerity and efforts and noted that without the outstanding contributions of the Adventist church and other Christian denominations to education, through its denominational schools which they have founded, the government would face an almost insurmountable task in guaranteeing universal access to education.
Pastor Leonard Johnson, head of the regional office for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in The Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, could not attend the meeting because of church business overseas.
Last week, it was revealed by Mr. Lloyd that during its term, the Christie administration invested some $30 million in school properties the government does not own and may “probably never own.”
He said $25.7 million of that “involves a premises which previously housed the Seventh-day Adventist Bahamas Academy on Wulff Road.
