A blaze on the night of March 4th, 2025 engulfed the site of the Dunnottar School at La Pansee, Castries resulting in much distress to school administrators and staff who were already in the throes of other concerns regarding the school’s future.
Established in 1973, the Dunnottar School provides care and education to students with learning and developmental disabilities.
A lifelong educator at the institution, Rodney Maximin, explains that although the school had temporarily relocated to the Marion Home due to health and safety concerns, plans were already in place for the use of the school plant for activities for persons with disabilities.
“I was really distraught. Apart from teaching at the school for many, many years, we have been trying to get authorisation to use the building to start a parent support group…this just puts all our plans behind,” Maximin said.
The building most destroyed by the fire was the one which had accommodations for students with special needs, like ramp access. Since the school’s temporary relocation, Maximin adds, the building has been constantly vandalised. He disclosed that a new site has been eyed for the construction of a new building for the Dunnottar School and says he longs for the day when the new structure can commence completion.
“We have been waiting for a new school to be built so that the Dunnottar School will finally have a home of its own. The school will not go back to that site. Hopefully, it will be used for some activities that would incorporate persons with disabilities – parents and the like,” he said.
The school caters for 102 students within the ages of 5 to 25 with a range of physical and learning disabilities including cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome and autism, and is spread over 15 classrooms.
