Graduating Without Ever Stepping Foot on Campus: 9 Years After Irma, Sister Marie Laurence Still Unrebuilt

In August 2017, my daughter was 3 years old and we celebrated her acceptance to Sister Marie Laurence Primary School in Middle Region. We imagined her first day: the walk through the gates, meeting friends on the playground, assemblies under the school roof that would become part of her childhood memories.

Three weeks later, Hurricane Irma hit Sint Maarten.

Today, June 2026, that same little girl graduated. She is 12 now, leaving primary school after 9 years of learning, growing, and making friends. I am proud and grateful. Her teachers gave her a good education under incredibly difficult circumstances. They taught in temporary buildings, shifted classrooms, doubled up, and made it work. For that, we as parents owe them everything.

But I would be lying if I said I’m not upset.

Not one day in 9 years did my daughter get to sit, play, or grow up on the school grounds she was meant to call hers. Sister Marie Laurence in Middle Region was never rebuilt. An entire generation of children, my daughter included, just aged out of a promise.

The Human Cost of a Delayed Rebuild

We talk about infrastructure in terms of budgets and timelines. But schools are not just buildings. They are where kids form their first sense of community outside the home. The yard where they fall and learn to get up. The classroom walls that hold their artwork. The place they point to years later and say, “That was my school.”

My daughter’s cohort had “temporary” as their only normal. They learned resilience, yes. But they also lost something unquantifiable. You cannot give a child back the years they were meant to spend in a space built for them.

Gratitude and Accountability Can Coexist

I want to be clear: this is not about blaming teachers, staff, or even the school board. I watched them do the impossible with what they had. This is about asking hard questions of all of us, government, NGOs, and the community: How does a primary school in a neighborhood stay unrebuilt for 9 years? How many more children will graduate from borrowed spaces before Middle Region sees its school again?

Rebuilding is complicated. Funding, permits, land, insurance, and planning all matter. I understand that. But 9 years is not a delay. It is a full childhood.

My daughter moves on to high school now. She is ready, because her teachers made sure of it. Yet as I watched her in her graduation gown, I could not help but think of the 3-year-old from 2017 who never got her first day at Sister Marie Laurence.

She deserved that day. So do the 3-year-olds starting this August.

If we are going to honor the resilience of our children and teachers post-Irma, the best way is to finish what we started. Rebuild Sister Marie Laurence. Not just for the structure, but for the childhoods still waiting to happen on that ground.

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