to the school which opened less than two months ago.

The Royal Gazette understands the cost of the damage, including smashed glass boxes encasing fire extinguishers, emptied extinguishers, and graffiti, has reached the $35,000 mark and possibly beyond that.

And while CedarBridge principal Ernest Payette said he preferred not to comment on the amount of damage before reviewing a report on the estimates which was expected in the next few weeks, he confirmed that a few of the school's 1,200 students had shown total disregard for the $60-million property.

"It's irritating stuff,'' he said, adding that the damage was due to a combination of maliciousness and school design problems.

For example the borders of the walls were made of a styrofoam substance which students picked, Mr. Payette pointed out.

"The locker numbers are glued on, so when they come loose the students peel them off,'' he added. "The panels for the fire extinguishers are made of glass so the students have just broken them. It should have been made of plexiglass.

"While that does not excuse the students' behaviour, you can do lots of things to prevent that kind of damage. Some of the designs are not suitable for a school facility.'' Mr. Payette also admitted that parts of the school had been marked by graffiti.

But he said: "When graffiti goes up we try to clean it up right away. We find this only happens in isolated places (where cameras are not located).'' "Security people are doing the best they can,'' he added. "But again it is a hard plant to supervise.'' Mr. Payette stressed that in order to eliminate the problem of malicious damage, students needed to appreciate the value of an education and take pride in the state-of-the-art CedarBridge facility at Prospect, Devonshire.

"Students have to appreciate that this is an environment for their learning,'' he said. "They should value it. They should have inherent pride and feel a desire to take care of it.'' While the school tried to develop a sense of ownership in students, the value of an education had to be instilled in youngsters at home and reinforced at school, he added.

The development of a student government and PTA could help with this, Mr.

Payette said.

Parents of CedarBridge students were scheduled to meet at the school last night to discuss the formation of a PTA. The student government was recently formed and is expected to be expanded next year.

However, Mr. Payette said people should not expect a total improvement overnight.

"We have a long-term task ahead of us,'' he noted. "This is not going to change in two years. It will take time -- until students move from primary school through the restructured system.'' Mr. Payette said staff at CedarBridge were aware of an "element of disruptive'' students and most of them had been dealt with through suspensions.

"There have been no expulsions,'' he added. "But we've put some students on long-term suspension until we have alternative programmes.'' The proposed alternative school, likely to be set up at Warwick Camp for some 20 students, would also help, he said.

Most of the disruptive students were in the 15-to-16-year-old category, he added.

Older students, who were allowed to return to the school system by CedarBridge, tended to be good role models for younger students, he said.

Of some 30 older students only one or two had left the school because they lacked the "work ethics and skills'' required.

Mr. Payette said: "They (older students) are not the difficult students. It's those in their mid-teens.'' But he stressed they were a minority and that incidents at the school and at the Hamilton bus terminal had decreased, largely due to the fact that other CedarBridge students found it unacceptable.

Positive support from parents and the community and the suspension of "instigators'' also helped.

Now, Mr. Payette said, CedarBridge needed to build in transition programmes and raise academic programmes for students making the transition.

"I'm very concerned about things like the reading levels of young people,'' he admitted. "This needs attention. These are massive tasks about which we cannot bury our heads in the sand.''