It now seems likely that the new Berkeley Institute will not be open for classes until September, 2006.

Although the Berkeley Board of Governors left open the possibility that the school could move before the end of this school year, that seems highly unlikely, and would be unwise.

What they made absolutely clear is that they will not be taking occupancy in January.

At first glance, there might appear to be a contradiction between Works Minister David Burch stating this week that the school would be handed over to the Ministry of Education in January and the school saying it would not move in then.

That is not so. Berkeley has long made it clear that it would need 90 days of preparation once the Ministry of Education had completed its phase of the fitting out and had handed over the keys to the Board of Governors. Since it is the end of November now, there was no way the school would be ready for students by the beginning of January. Sen. Burch will no doubt say that his Ministry did its job, and it was only the school's reluctance to hold up its end that has held up a January opening.

It doesn't really matter at this point. It is a better than fair bet that the new school will not see any students until September, and that means that for the first time since this benighted project began, the students, teachers, general public and even the Ministry of Education now have a date that everyone can believe in.

It is probably right, given everything that has gone wrong with this project, that Berkeley should delay going in until September. In that way the move can be planned, the wrinkles and teething problems can be sorted out, and a seamless transition can take place.

So that's that. No more broken promises, obfuscations, explanations, justifications or exaggerations are needed. This debacle is over, at least for the Berkeley family. Of course, the arbitration between Government and former contractor Pro-Active Management Systems is ongoing, possibly forever.

Nonetheless, this debacle should not be forgotten. Two numbers should remain in the public's minds. The first is "three", as in "three years late", since the school was supposed to open in September, 2003. The second is "30 million", as in the roughly "$30 million" that this project has gone over budget, so far.

This week, Sen. Burch was quick to criticise Opposition MP Maxwell Burgess for bringing up his own figure of the final overrun ($50 million), essentially saying that it was yesterday's news and everyone already knew the project was over budget.

Mr. Burgess was right to raise it, and Sen. Burch was wrong to criticise him for doing so. By any measure, $30 million is a lot of money.

In capital account figures, it is about one quarter of Government's debt at March 31 this year and about 75 percent of the amount that Government has loaned to the Housing Corporation. Even in Bermuda's extraordinarily inflated housing market, it could be used to build about 60 homes, which would put a dent in the never-ending housing crisis.

Those two numbers should never be forgotten. And while there is plenty of blame to go around for this fiasco, the ultimate responsibility lies with the political leaders of the Government, because it was a political decision to proceed with the school's construction and the choice of contractor was a political decision too.

The Berkeley debacle is a permanent blemish on the PLP's record, and one that should never be forgotten.