Both Government and the Berkeley Board of Trustees remain silent after another deadline to move into the new Senior Secondary School project was missed last week.

In November, newly-appointed Works and Engineering and Housing Minister Sen. David Burch pledged to hand over the new secondary school ? which is already $50 million overbudget and over two years late in opening ? to the Ministry of Education and Development ready for classes to begin in January, 2006.

However, this week neither Sen. Burch, nor Permanent Secretary Russell Wade responded to questions about when a projected start date for classes to run at the new senior school would be.

A Works Ministry spokeswoman responded that the start of classes was the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Development.

?You will be advised accordingly with an update on the Senior Secondary School,? the spokeswoman said.

And Chairman of the Berkeley Institute Board of Trustees Calvin White said he was still waiting to hear from Government about when it would be able to hand over the new school to the Board.

?January might have been bandied about a bit as a hand-over date,? Mr. White said. ?The important thing really from Berkeley?s perspective is that we are anxious to take it as soon as it is ready and safe to do so. It is important for the public to understand.

?Education is going on right now and has been all the time. Students have not been disadvantaged to any great extent to continue their education,? he said.

However, when Mr. White was asked whether he thought a September hand-over date would be less disruptive for Berkeley students, he refused to comment.

And Craig Bridgewater, a member of the Berkeley Board of Governors said he had nothing new to add and would not comment on whether September would be better.

But Bermuda Union of Teachers General Secretary Michael Charles reiterated that September would be the less disruptive time for students to move into the new Senior Secondary School.

?I do not think it is wise to move students in the middle of the term,? Mr. Charles said. ?It will be an interruption of all the kids at the Berkeley plant.

?Really there is nothing much wrong with the building they are in. If it was falling apart and leaking I could see why they wanted to get out of there. But the school building is in pretty good shape.?

It would be disruptive to move in at the middle of term, he said, because students would have to find their way around a new building, which would happen in September anyway.

Berkeley had long made it clear that it would need 90 days of preparation once the Ministry of Education had completed its phase of the fitting out and had handed over the keys to the Board of Governors.