Berkeley Institute is seeking assurance that Government will have money to convert the high school into a senior school.

The school plans to have the senior school built on the 7.42-acre Ridgeway property across the street from the present site by the year 2000.

This will allow construction to take place without disrupting classes at the existing school.

Pre-design and project programme briefs have been completed and submitted to Berkeley's board of governors and the Education Ministry for approval.

The board expected schematic design drawings to be completed and available for review by the middle of next month, design development to be finished by February 15 next year; construction documents to be ready by July 31, 1998; bids and negotiations to be completed by August 15, 1998; construction to begin by October 15, 1998, and the school to be completed by December 15, 2000.

But Chairman of the school's board, Calvin White, yesterday told The Royal Gazette the lengthy report including the pre-design and project programme briefs had not yet been signed off.

"Every day that we do not sign pushes the project back,'' Mr. White pointed out. "And what that does obviously is put in jeopardy completion dates. It also makes more challenges with regards to the whole project. The problem is with coordinating a combination of things.'' However, Mr. White said he was more concerned with whether funding would be available for the project which, based on an earlier study, was expected to cost some $40 million.

The cost of the project is still under evaluation. Once that has been completed it will be presented to the Cabinet Capital Development Committee and subsequently to the Finance Ministry before it is disclosed to the public.

Mr. White said: "My concern is that when that (the project package) comes before Cabinet, Cabinet approves it because we cannot have two schools of unequal facilities and say with any conscious that we are providing equal education across the country.

"My concern is that Government will find themselves hard pressed to find the funds to do Berkeley the way it should be done, having spent as much as they have at CedarBridge.'' He pointed out that Berkeley was an aided school which meant that Government was not necessarily obligated to fund all of its operating expenses. But with a maintained school, like CedarBridge, Government was committed to "funding every dollar''.

Berkeley concerns over Govt. funding Government spent an estimated $62 million on the new senior school at Prospect which has reached its maximum capacity of 1,200 students.

With Berkeley expected to accommodate some 750 maximum students, Mr. White said it would be a much smaller school.

"While maintaining open space, which I think is important, we will be looking to keep it on a smaller scale, so it will be easier to control,'' he added.

Government has so far allocated some $20 million for Berkeley as a senior school. But Mr. White said that would definitely not be enough.

Neither Education Minister Jerome Dill nor Finance Minister Grant Gibbons could be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Mr. White also stressed that although Berkeley would have a wider intake of students as a senior school, based on parental choice, it intended to maintain the standard of excellence it had held.

"This means that even though we will be offering a broader variety of courses, some of the non-academic courses and so forth, the attitude with which students approach their learning and what they come out with at the end of the day, whether they are a tradesmen, beauticians or whatever, they would bring the same standard of excellence to that discipline,'' Mr. White explained.

He also noted that some people still believed there should be some selectivity in schools.

"But,'' he pointed out "Berkeley was created from the founding fathers to provide the highest level of education for everyone in this country. That is one of the reasons why we're still in the public school system. Because we believe everyone should have the opportunity to the best education available.

As a result of that we have to be able to allow everybody to have a chance.'' "The challenge for Berkeley is to make sure that in this broad selection intake that students very early are inculcated into the Berkeley experience and the Berkeley spirit,'' he added.

Mr. White has requested that the school's mission statement be visible throughout the facility in order to reinforce this.