No Shade, No Relief for Silk Grass Methodist School Students

A viral video showing students gathered under the blazing sun has exposed an urgent need at Silk Grass Methodist School. With more than four hundred and sixty students enrolled, the school’s existing shed simply cannot provide enough shade during assemblies and other activities. Now, administrators are turning to the public for help expanding the structure at an estimated cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. Teacher Eli Villalta says volunteers have already offered their labor, but the project cannot begin without the necessary construction materials. Today, he explained what the school needs and how the community can help get the students out of the heat.

 

 

Eli Villalta, Teacher, Silk Grass Methodist School

“People have been contacting me, telling me you’re willing to give up as a mentor to comment and usually in cases like these, I know that you’d have the material, but you don’t have people to do the labor. However, this time it’s the opposite. I have enough people willing to work and telling me whenever you have the materials, just let us know and we’re coming in. So right now, I’m not so hoping that I can get enough materials. At this point, I have fourteen cement to start off with.  And we’ll see what comes from there.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Will it be that you guys are extending the shed or are you making a new shed?”

 

Eli Villalta

“We’ll be extending the shed to a bigger size. I did the calculations and this morning, someone came in a professional who deals with construction and the estimate was up to twenty-five thousand because, you know, there’s a difference.  And when someone like me who doesn’t have the doesn’t deal with it professionally. So I was willing to do it my way. But when the professional came in, he did it his when he told me you need twnety-five thousand dollars and he gave me a list of everything we got the prizes and it’s an estimate of twenty-five thousand dollars. That’s a good amount. We need materials. I mean, and it’d be good if the community chips in and say, I’ll give one thing. I’ll give a lot of cement. I’ll give one post until we reach everything.”

 

Villalta also noted that while the school has an auditorium, it is also in need of renovations as it is too small to accommodate the growing student population.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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