City school gets DepEd fund for new building
WEST Central 1 Elementary School in Dagupan will soon have a new three-storey, nine-classroom building to be funded by the Department of Education (DepEd).
Seven classrooms of the school were burned down last September 2 and four others located at the General Douglas McArthur Hall have been vacated due to the frail condition of its pillars.
The DepEd physical facilities and schools engineering department (PFSED), together with the regional engineering department, inspected the damaged classrooms last week and gave assurance for the full funding of the replacement building.
Gloria Torres, division schools superintendent of DepEd Dagupan City, said the construction of the new structure is estimated to cost about P13 million.
“This is good news for us, especially for the pupils who are affected by the shifting of classes,” Torres said.
She added, “We are thankful because we will no longer need the funds from the city for the construction of classrooms in West Central 1 but instead it will be used to build classrooms in other schools that lack classrooms.”
Mayor Belen Fernandez, who earlier pledged to allocate city funds for a new building for the school, welcomed the DepEd commitment.
Torres said they eventually dropped the option to use the three- story school building with 15 classrooms built by the previous administration originally intended for relocation of pupils of Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School because of the hazards posed by the location.
“We considered it for a while but we have seen that the school building’s location could be dangerous for the children since it is in the premises of the city engineering office where the heavy equipment are stored,” Torres explained.
The Lim administration had originally planned to demolish the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School to give way to the construction of a maternal and child lying in hospital.
DepEd did not approve the request of then Mayor Benjamin Lim to transfer the students of Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School to the new building.
The current administration has permanently shelved the hospital project.—Dada Austria
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
