Students will not be occupying the new second senior school at any level by the completion deadline this September as progress on the development has failed to pick up pace, insiders have claimed.

Despite still no official word from Government about the status of the $70 million new school project, which was supposed to be open for lessons at the start of the next term, senior sources inside the site predicted there was no chance the school will be ready.

On the contrary, they said the massive new school on Berkeley Road in Pembroke would not be finished until September next year as the work rate had continued to be slow, even though Minister of Works and Engineering Alex Scott has repeatedly promised to step it up a gear and bring in additional resources.

The Minister has frequently said that he hoped some sections of the school would be ready for students sooner, rather than later, even if the whole development was not totally finished.

A new completion date has never been made official, and the Minister has refused to rule out some kind of occupancy by students from Berkeley Institute this September.

But with the roof still incomplete and some windows missing, workers said the building was not even closed in yet.

One senior source, who did not wish to be named, said: “It's going very slow. It's a bit better than it was three months ago, but it's still very slow.

“My honest opinion is that it will be ready in September next year, but I think it will be close to get it finished by even then.

“The students may well be on site this coming September, but there won't be any classrooms for them. I think it's time parents were told, and the whole of Bermuda should be told.”

And a parent who has a child at Berkeley Institute, who did not want to be named, said he believed it was time parents were officially told that their children would not be moving to the new site this year, and instead would be remaining at the old Berkeley Institute.

He said: “I would have thought that somebody would have come out and said to us by now that the new school was not going to be ready.

“I don't know why they have said there was a chance that part of the school would be ready. I guess they have to be optimistic, but anyone looking at the development will certainly know that it is not going to be ready in time for September.

“I think parents with children at Berkeley and those who are sending their young children there this year should probably be told now.”

The school site has been plagued by problems since the contract was awarded to Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd. in May of 2001.

Troubles came to a head earlier this year when the project ran into severe financial difficulties, leaving both workers and sub-contractors without pay.

As a result, workers downed tools and sub-contractors threatened to withdraw their labour as debts ran into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A secret benefactor, believed to be the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU), came to the rescue and began to pay off the debts. And then Minister Scott again said his Ministry was looking to increase resources and the work rate on the site, and was looking at the possibility of bringing in a management company from overseas, HR Lubben Group, to help escalate the project and offer advice to Government.

However, Mr. Scott said Pro-Active would always remain in charge of the site.

But, as of yesterday, workers and contractors said there had been no sign of HR Lubben Group on the development, and said little had escalated.

One sub-contractor, who also wished not to be identified, said he now had no complaints about the financial side of the project, with all debts being met, however, he said the work rate needed to pick up somewhat.

He said: “Everything is pretty much as it was. They have finally caught up in their payments, but we are still answering to Pro-Active and the work rate is exactly the same as it was.

“There might be a few people working overtime, but it's certainly not the aggressive overtime you would need to get it back on schedule.

“You would have to work every night and weekends in order to make a serious dent in the progress of the project, and that's simply not happening. I still think September next year.

“The building has to be finished and then you have to fill it with furniture and decorate it, and work inside. You have to have sewage treatment, and so on. I can't see any of that being done by September.”

Mr. Scott is off work sick at the moment after undergoing surgery, and his permanent secretary Derrick Binns said he was not permitted to speak about the development.

He said if Mr. Scott returned to work next week, the Minister may make a comment on the progress of the site then.

And the Education Ministry said it was not expecting the new school to be open for September this year and it had made contingency plans for this eventuality with both the principals of Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy.

Education Minister Paula Cox said earlier this year that she did not wish students to be split in two different locations, at the old and new schools, because it would be too disruptive.

She said: “Clearly, we would all like to have the school done and ready as soon as possible, but I think the main thrust from the Ministry of Education is that we don't have a situation that is a disruptive environment and we are not going to have a position where you have students in a split facility.

“It would not make sense from an operational point of view.”

Yesterday, chairman of the Berkeley Institute board Calvin White said he had not been told that the new school would or would not be ready in time for September.

And secretary of the board Gary Phillips said the board and the school had been told they would be given sufficient notice to move into the new school.

He said: “When ever the school is ready, we will be given advance notice. At this particular point, it's probably unlikely that the school will be ready for occupancy in September.”