And all three departments of the school will now be linked by a state-of-the-art fibre-optic network due to generous donations from Lines Overseas Management Ltd. (LOM) and the Bank of Bermuda.

Through a $75,000 donation from LOM last spring and $50,000 from the bank, Saltus has been able to transform former administrative offices on the second floor of its main building at St. John's Road into the new Donald P. Lines Computer Centre.

The name honours the former bank president who is chairman of LOM's board and a Saltus graduate.

Mr. Lines during the official opening of the centre yesterday said he and his sons, Brian and Scott (both LOM officers and Saltus "Old Boys''), were motivated to make their contribution because of their attachment to the school and their belief in its importance to the Island's business community.

"It was our pleasure to present the money to Saltus to upgrade its computer training facilities to meet the challenges of the future,'' Mr. Lines said.

"Information technology is a key ingredient in the development of Bermuda and to our ability to compete in the global world in which we have become a part.'' The new computer lab is at the heart of Saltus' new "SchoolNet'' -- a teaching centre linked by fibre-optic cable to the new multimedia library, to classrooms, to the staff common room, and the Administration Centre at Woodlands.

The centre, equipped with 50 new IBM and MacIntosh computer terminals, replaces the old Senior School lab which had 30 MacIntosh machines.

The former office block was selected for the new centre because it was already air-conditioned, partially wired for a network, and guarded by an electronic surveillance system.

Space was made available by relocating Saltus' central administration to the historic Woodlands property in the centre of the campus.

Saltus headmaster Trevor Rowell said improvements in computer training was a major goal of the school's new Development Plan.

"The IT priority emerged from all the discussion groups which recommended that we forge ahead in Information Technology,'' he said. "The generosity of the Lines family and the Bank of Bermuda puts Saltus in the forefront of educational computer technology.'' Mr. Rowell added that the new computer facility was just the beginning of the school's Information Technology plan.

"This year we've added a qualified computer trainer to the staff who will provide the necessary instruction to our teachers, helping them adapt more IT components in their curricula and troubleshooting inevitable `bugs' in the new system,'' he said.