The Cayman Islands Government has gone to the market for the CI$236 million it was authorised to borrow over 2026 and 2027, and the first project it names in the capital programme that money will support is the completion of the new high school in Cayman Brac. A Request for Proposals for a 15-year, unsecured, amortising loan was issued through the Government's Bonfire procurement portal on 29 September, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development said in a statement on 14 October. Bids close on 27 October and the Ministry expects to sign the loan agreement in December.

The borrowing is not new. The Appropriation (Financial Years 2026 and 2027) Act, 2025 authorised the Government to borrow up to CI$124 million in 2026 and CI$112 million in 2027, and the Ministry said the financing "is not additional to the borrowing previously announced and approved as part of the Budget".

What the money is for

The Ministry listed six areas of investment in the approved capital programme, beginning with "the completion of the new Cayman Brac High School and the expansion of educational facilities at Sir John A. Cumber Primary School and Joanna Clarke Primary School". The others are roads, infrastructure and development projects, land acquisition for agriculture and conservation, affordable housing, and capital and equity investments in public entities.

The statement does not tie the loan to any one of them. The facility "supports the capital programme as a whole", the Ministry said, and "it would therefore be inaccurate to attribute the entire CI$236 million loan to one individual school, road, housing development or other infrastructure project".

The Budget documents do put a figure on the schools. In his Budget Address to Parliament on 6 November 2025, Rolston Anglin MP, Minister for Finance and Economic Development, said the Government would invest "$21.4 million in 2026 and $19.4 million in 2027 for the completion of the new High School on Cayman Brac and the expansion of educational facilities at the Sir John A Cumber Primary School and the Joanna Clarke Primary School". The 2026 and 2027 Plan and Estimates carry those sums as a single equity investment line to the Ministry of Education and Training and do not break out how much of the two-year total of CI$40.8 million is for the Brac school.

How the loan would be drawn

Under the RFP, the lender would make the money available in two tranches: CI$124 million on signing or by 31 December 2026 at the latest, and CI$112 million within three months of signing or on one month's written notice. Mr Anglin confirmed the tender was under way during Finance Committee on 8 October, in answer to a question from Roy McTaggart MP, the member for George Town East, who asked whether the Government had borrowed in 2026 or planned to before the end of the year. "The RFP is currently out for the borrowing and it's on Bonfire," Mr Anglin said. "I did make the commitment that we weren't going to go to the market until we saw that we needed to. And so, we've now done that." He added that the funds would be drawn down as appropriate to manage interest costs.

That echoes the position he set out in November, when he told Parliament the Government would "only draw down on the loan funds if and when it is absolutely necessary to do so". He said then that if the full CI$236 million were drawn, year-end debt would be approximately CI$578.9 million in 2026 and CI$633.7 million in 2027. The Ministry's statement puts the debt balance at CI$471.8 million as of 31 August 2026, and says the CI$134.3 million in supplementary appropriations approved by Finance Committee in June did not raise the CI$236 million borrowing limit.

The school beside the Sports Complex

The new campus for Layman E. Scott Sr. High School is being built beside the Cayman Brac Sports Complex by a joint venture of McAlpine Ltd and Arch & Godfrey Ltd. A 38-suite accommodation block for construction crews on the same 18.1-acre site was handed over in March 2025.

Mr Anglin, who also holds the education portfolio, announced at a press briefing on 29 August 2025 that the project would go ahead with a reduced scope. The gymnasium and its connecting hallways were dropped, a change the Ministry of Education and Training said was projected to save about CI$6 million, with indoor PE and large examinations to use the existing multipurpose hall at the Sports Complex. The school is to accommodate at least 200 students and 50 staff, and the Ministry said the campus was expected to be completed in 2026.

"This is not about cutting corners," Mr Anglin said then. "It is about balancing ambition with accountability, delivering a modern and sustainable school while exercising the fiscal prudence that our people rightly expect."

Garth Arch, managing director of Arch & Godfrey Ltd, said at the same briefing that materials had been procured and construction of the second floor was under way. "The Joint Venture of McAlpine and Arch & Godfrey is fully committed to completing the works in line with the scope, timeline, and quality standards," he said.

The April 2025 release announcing the accommodation block had described the gymnasium as a planned national hurricane shelter for all three islands. The Ministry's August 2025 statement and the Budget documents do not address the shelter. The loan agreement is expected in December, in the closing weeks of the year in which the Ministry said the campus would be completed.