Acting Education Commissioner Donna M. Flores, right, and Public School System Facilities Development and Management’s Rommel Mostales stand near a demolition site at Admiral Herbert G. Hopwood Middle School in Chalan Piao on Saturday.
Acting Commissioner of Education Donna M. Flores, right, is briefed by FSM Recycling Corporation’s Michael Jang, left, regarding the demolition of Hopwood’s condemned buildings on Saturday.
THE condemned, typhoon-damaged buildings at Admiral Herbert G. Hopwood Middle School were demolished on Saturday morning to pave the way for the construction of modular classrooms.
Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, the $4 million project will provide Hopwood with 20 portable pre-fabricated classrooms, acting Education Commissioner Donna M. Flores said.
These modular classrooms will serve as temporary classrooms for Hopwood students in addition to the 19 classrooms that were renovated following Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, she added.
Yutu destroyed six of Hopwood’s nine buildings.
The construction of a new permanent campus will begin soon, Flores said. The Public School System received $25.112 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2020 for the construction of a new campus.
“This is wonderful — this is the start of a new chapter of Hopwood Middle School,” Flores said, referring to the demolition of its dilapidated buildings.
“This is really a momentous occasion for PSS, the residents of San Antonio and Chalan Piao and all the other students on island who go to Hopwood,” Flores said.
She noted that the modular classrooms are transportable. Once the construction of the permanent campus is completed the modular classrooms can be transported to other schools that may need them, she said.
FSM Recycling is the contractor for the demolition project while CJ Innovations is the contractor for the modular classrooms, which PSS said should be ready in the next school year.
