Holmwood Tech relaxes grooming code, provides haven for displaced western students
Published:Monday | November 17, 2025 | 12:30 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Two weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore off roofs, flooded laboratories, and damaged dormitories, Holmwood Technical High School in Christiana, Manchester, has reopened, relaxing grooming rules and offering shelter to displaced students in the island’s western parishes.
Principal Hidran McKulsky said the school began repairs the day after the storm, leveraging the skills of its engineering teachers and support from the wider community. He said the institution suffered an estimated $60 million in infrastructural damage, including severe losses to its greenhouses, chicken coops, pig pens, and water-harvesting systems.
“We’re doing just temporary restoration to be able to have school and so forth, to be able to keep the students in school. So, for example, some of the zinc that we’re putting on now, if we were to experience heavy winds, or probably about 80 miles-per-hour-type of wind, probably they would be gone again,” he said.
He added that this has been communicated to the Ministry of Education and that the National Education Trust is to visit the school soon to do an assessment.
McKulsky stressed that reopening quickly was crucial to prevent further learning loss, noting that students were only just recovering from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 600 of Jamaica’s 1,010 public schools were severely damaged when Hurricane Melissa made landfall on October 28. Up to late last week, some 653 had reopened.
“If we are not very proactive in responding to having our students return to school in the very near future, we’re going to have ... a double whammy,” McKulsky told The Gleaner.
As such, issues like strict uniform compliance or punctuality were set aside when students returned last Monday, with an adjusted start time of 8:30 a.m.
“We still accommodate persons who come any time throughout the day because we do understand the unique situation that some of these persons face. We relaxed the enforcement of uniforms that suggests that students are to be properly attired in uniform. We relaxed that, and also relaxed the professional way for teachers so that they are properly attired, and that was very welcoming,” McKulsky said.
Holmwood serves 1,650 students and up to 900 have attended classes since reopening.
Repairs prioritised dormitory spaces to house students who lost their homes in the Category 5 storm. So far, 18 students from Westmoreland and 31 from St James have taken refuge in dorms.
Psychosocial support has been central to the school’s recovery efforts. Only staff members reported last Monday for team-building and trauma-management sessions – part of a flexible work arrangement. The principal said at least 10 teachers suffered severe property damage, and to assist them, the school is setting up an ironing station as they prepare to return to professional wear this week. The students will not be mandated to return to uniforms as yet.
Senior students sitting external examinations returned on Tuesday, and all students were welcomed back on Wednesday. Rather than immediately resuming formal instruction, the school focused on emotional care.
“We did not return them to the classroom space for pure teaching and learning. We had general assemblies. We allowed them to express themselves. We talked with them, we motivated them, and then we allowed them to go on break; and then they went to their classrooms, form rooms, met with their teachers. The guidance counsellors were [also] filtered across the campus to meet with them and to just connect with them,” McKulsky said.
He added that staff have also been conducting outreach activities, visiting the homes of students affected by the hurricane and providing relief items to their families. This initiative is supported by a robust alumni, which the principal said has been very supportive in its recovery drive.
The school currently relies on water from its harvesting facilities, and McKulsky even supplied his personal generator to power the cafeteria.
Stating that Holmwood Technical High School is willing to accommodate students from other schools who were more severely affected, McKulsky, in the same breath, urged other less-impacted schools to seek to reopen as quickly as possible.
“I’m very disappointed that some schools that were not affected as much as we are affected are yet to reopen,” he said.