Campaigners for a Somerset school earmarked for closure under sweeping education reforms are hopeful of a reprieve after scheduling a meeting with David Burt and Diallo Rabain, the education minister.

West End Primary School, founded in 1869, was said to be cherished by the community for its history as an institution attended by Black and Portuguese pupils during racially segregated schooling in Bermuda.

Its closure in favour of Somerset Primary School was announced in 2021 as part of an overhaul of public education.

Ellen-Kate Horton, a former permanent secretary of education, told The Royal Gazette yesterday that the West End Warriors, a pressure group, would hold a town hall meeting early next month with the Premier and Mr Rabain.

“We are hopeful — we think there is enough public pressure that we can change things,” Ms Horton said. “Right now we are looking for any real reason as to why the school would have to be closed.”

She said that the campaigners would also hold a public meeting on Tuesday to “keep the school family involved and keep the momentum going” before the end of the academic year.

Preserving the school has been a long-haul campaign for the group, which has submitted petitions, held a series of meetings and demonstrated with a motorcade in March.

The group also spoke out at a town hall meeting on school reforms in November that was attended by the Premier and Mr Rabain.

On that occasion, both acknowledged the unpopularity of closing West End Primary but insisted that the move was for the good of students.

Reforms would leave each parish with a single primary school with the exception of Pembroke, which would be left with two.

A report issued by the Ministry of Education in July 2021 stated: “Somerset Primary School is the best and most appropriate site for the parish primary school in Sandys Parish.

“Somerset Primary School achieved a higher score in four of the weighted study factors categories.

“The school site has a larger available acreage and capacity for development expansion, to accommodate up to 300 students and staff.

“It also has a large playing field that has sufficient outdoor space and a preschool located on its site.”

Ms Horton insisted that the difference between the schools was minimal enough to give grounds for a review of the decision.

“As we see it, they have five percentage points that separate the two schools. We feel the history and legacy of West End cannot become something that they simply write down in a book. There is nothing like the living history of a school that has served this community for 153 years.

“The school stands as one of the oldest in the western hemisphere to have continually served Black people. Somerset Primary only opened its doors 50-odd years ago.”

She added: “We hear from a lot of Somerset people who cannot understand why such a decision was so callously made.

“And if we think politically, the Somerset community is the reason for four seats in the House of Assembly for the Progressive Labour Party.”

Ms Horton said that the school had “always been on the chopping block for successive governments”.

She highlighted a campaign in the 1990s by West End Primary parents against the United Bermuda Party administration over overcrowding in classrooms.

“West Enders fought against it, and the politicians of the day stepped back and left the school alone,” Ms Horton said.

She acknowledged that campaigners had met Mr Burt recently at Cabinet without getting a reversal of the school’s closing.

Ms Horton said that the group remained “optimistic” that the meeting next month at the school could yield an announcement in their favour.

She added: “You cannot make a decision of this magnitude and not talk to the community.”