May 21, 2002 – Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel told a delegation of Peace Corps Elementary School teachers, officials and parents on Friday that she would make a decision Monday on whether to withdraw her legislation proposing to rename their school.
As of Tuesday afternoon, she had not returned calls seeking to learn whether she had yet reached a decision.
Peace Corps PTA president Elva Huggins said Saturday that the senator told her she would consult with the family of Lucille V. Roberts over the weekend. The senator and two St. Croix colleagues introduced legislation renaming Peace Corps the Lucille V. Roberts Elementary School at a Rules Committee meeting several weeks ago on St. Croix.
Peace Corps teachers, parents and students have expressed astonishment and anger since then over the proposed change, which they said caught them by surprise. A petition drive was launched in opposition to Pickard-Samuel's bill.
As of Saturday, Principal Elizabeth Shortt said, the petition had "at least 500 signatures." Copies were available for signing at about six locations until they were collected and delivered to the office of Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd on Tuesday. The petition reads:
"Whereas faculty, staff, students, parents and friends of Peace Corps Elementary School were not included in the process of renaming our school, we the undersigned request that Bill No. 24-0232 [Pickard-Samuel's proposal] be withdrawn immediately. A decision of this magnitude requires the opportunity for direct input from the many individuals who will be affected by such an action."
Pickard-Samuel said on Friday that she had mailed a copy of the draft legislation to the school "two or three weeks" prior to the Senate meeting. "Perhaps I made a mistake by not going to the PTA and asking for their response," she said.
She said she did not follow up the letter with a telephone call. School officials say they never received a letter containing the legislation. School secretary Carmen I. Williams said on Friday that she personally opens "every piece of mail that comes in" and looks it over "to see where it goes."
Huggins said, "My question to the senator was: If you didn't receive a response, why didn't you follow up?"
'Part owners' express their opinions
In a statement personally delivered to Pickard-Samuel at the Friday meeting, the school representatives said, in part: "We are particularly disturbed by this … obvious disregard for input from those of us directly affected. We understand as taxpayers and part owners of this school we have a right to voice our opinions on any proposed bill through the process established by the Legislature."
Alfred Raimer, the first Peace Corps PTA president, was among the contingent that went to Pickard-Samuel's office Friday. He said afterward that he believes the senator is "now sensitized" to the community's extreme interest. He said she is "reviewing options and plans to make a decision on Monday." He added, "But she has the necessary votes."
Roberts, now 97 years old, was a teacher and administrator on St. Thomas for 51 years. The daughter of Lionel Roberts Sr., she served as principal at three elementary schools — Robert Herrick (originally called Mafolie and now Sibilly), Ulla Muller and James Madison (now Edith Williams).
Huggins said, "We have nothing against Miss Roberts; she was a wonderful educator, but she had nothing to do with the Peace Corps School. If we wanted to change the name for any educator, it would be for Yvonne Bowsky — the school is Yvonne Bowsky."
In the 1972-73 school year, Huggins said, Bowsky took an "abandoned building recently vacated by the Peace Corps program and, with very limited help, turned it into a school in about six weeks' time." Bowsky served as the school's principal for years and turned it into a first-rate elementary school, Huggins said.
"We feel we should be given a say in this," Huggins continued. "If anyone deserved being named for the school, it would be Yvonne Bowsky."
In fact, Pickard-Samuel said, Bowsky had contacted her since the brouhaha over her bill broke out. "She told me the school shouldn't be named for Roberts, but for someone else," Pickard-Samuel said. "When I asked her who, she said, 'me.'"
Pickard-Samuel said her office has been flooded with calls pro and con on the renaming.
Proud of 'all it stands for'
Huggins and the others made it clear that they love the Peace Corps name. "In this world right now, the turmoiled world, we try using the name 'peace' at the school," they said in their statement. "This school, affectionately called the Peace Corps School, has nurtured thousands of youngsters into adolescence and adulthood. Peace Corps is proud of her students, and her students are proud of their school. We are proud of our affiliation with the national organization and all it stands for."
The Peace Corps program was created by President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s as a way for Americans, initially for the most part young adults just out of college, to give two years of volunteer service to their country while working abroad on specific assignments at the invitation of developing nations. In preparation for their assignments, PC Volunteers, as they were called, underwent intensive orientation to the language and culture of the countries where they were being sent. That orientation for those assigned to serve in French West Africa was carried out on St. Thomas at what is now the Peace Corps School.
Noting that the school consists of seven buildings, Huggins suggested naming one building, such as the cafeteria or administration building, for Roberts. She noted that this is what is done at Charlotte Amalie High School. The auditorium, for example, is named for Ruth E. Thomas. "They wouldn't dare change the school's name," Huggins said.
Sen. Carlton Dowe, who attended a PTA meeting at the school last week, said Friday, "My concern is with the process. There should have been a dialogue on the matter." Pickard-Samuel's bill lists Sens. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen and Douglas Canton Jr., both St. Croix senators, as co-sponsors. Neither was available for comment Saturday.
Accompanying Huggins to the meeting in Pickard-Samuel's office on Friday were Pauline Venzen-Davis, teacher; Albert Richards, teacher; Rik Van Rensselaer, parent; Alfred Raimer, former teacher and former PTA president; Allia Diana Todman, teacher; Jitka Munzar, nurse; and Carmen Williams, secretary.
How it all began
The following information, if not otherwise indicated, is taken from an article titled "Peace Corps School remembers" in the book "Peace Corps School: 20 years of quality education." The article was researched and written by Elizabeth Shortt, a teacher at the school on opening day in 1973, assistant principal in 1980-87, and principal ever since.
The first structures on what today is the school grounds were erected by Civilian Conservation Corps workers in the 1930s. The CCC was a federal program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's to provide work during the Depression. The facility first was used as a home for troubled boys, properly named The Mandahl Home for Boys.
Leroy Marchena recalled going there as a youth with his baseball team from Garden Street to play with "the guys." After the boys' home was discontinued, the site was used as a Boy Scout camp. Wilbert Lindesay recalled that the cafeteria had a loft filled with bees and that the boys from All Saints Cathedral School hid their food up there to keep the Mafolie Church troop boys from "borrowing" it.
In 1967, the federal government leased the "camping facilities" in Estate Mandahl, a little over 10 acres, for use as a Pea
ce Corps training center, mainly for volunteers going to French-speaking West and Central African countries — Chad, the Congo, Dahomey, Gabon, Niger, Senegal, Upper Volta. St. Thomas residents at that time can recall meeting trainees at the beach — noticeable because they were under orders not to speak except in French.
The lease was for five years, renewable for five more, at $25,000 a year. By May 1963, Peace Corps volunteers had done some construction work themselves — erecting classrooms at the new Nisky School and the James Madison school. The classrooms were "named" for the Peace Corps and R. Sargent Shriver, Peace Corps director, spoke at the dedication ceremonies. When the federal government ended the St. Thomas training and transferred the property back to the V.I. government in 1973, a speaker said that "3,000 volunteers trained here have been conveyed to the peoples of the countries where they have been assigned."
Gov. Melvin Evans pledged "to continue the spirit of service of the Peace Corps in the Virgin Islands by putting the facilities of Virgin Islands Training Center to good use." According to a Government House statement, the territory had "invested" $175,000 in the property — presumably the original purchase of the land — and got back from the federal government a facility "now valued at $625,000, representing improved sewage systems, air conditioning and printing equipment."
Later that year, the Legislature passed a bill to establish a vocational training center at the Peace Corps site. Acting Gov. Athniel "Addie" Ottley vetoed the bill and was quoted in The Daily News as saying he did not want "makeshift quarters for vocational training." The Senate overrode the veto, but opposition to the vocational training school idea continued. Meanwhile, Harold Haizlip, commissioner of Education, requested the use of the facility for an elementary school.
Overcrowding of schools as the population of St. Thomas expanded was causing double sessions at Joseph Gomez and Mafolie/Robert Herrick schools. Haizlip wanted to use the Peace Corps site to ease that situation.
Alfred Raimer recalled recently that there was opposition from parents to relocating their children "way out there" and complaints about the condition of the physical plant, but the plan moved forward.
Earlier attempt at renaming failed
According to Shortt's article, "No one knew quite what to call the place. The names The Peace Corps Complex and the Mandahl School were often used. Slowly but surely, The Peace Corps School began to stick. At one point [in 1982], legislation was proposed to name the school after a V.I. educator. Although deserving of this honor, this educator was never a part of the Peace Corps School. The children wrote many letters to Gov. Juan Luis asking him to veto this legislation. He did so and Peace Corps School retained the name it was growing up with."
Yvonne Milliner Bowsky, the school's first principal, described in a 1974 report what she found: "I was greatly discouraged when I arrived. I expected to find a school plant ready to receive 400 students; instead I found the confusion left behind by the recent inhabitants of the Peace Corps Training Center … The buildings were attractive, the campus green and flowering, but nowhere in sight was a ready classroom for children. I estimated a full six months before classrooms would be ready for children. Nevertheless, the children arrived within one week. No classrooms, no staff, and 400 students."
School began with seven classroom teachers, two aides, one custodian and two maintenance workers. The assistant principal, Helen Reed, was assigned a class, Shortt took on two fifth grades, and even the custodians found themselves teaching children. But great strides were made that first year. The teaching staff increased to 23, the school began to serve lunch, playground equipment arrived, and the children had a Carnival float depicting Bru Nanci stories.
In 1989, Hurricane Hugo destroyed 12 classrooms, the library, the patio and the cafeteria. Recovery began with a clean-up. Shortt recalled: "I remember loading up my car with supplies when clean-up day was announced, because you could buy supplies, and, driving out there, wondering if anyone would show up. When I reached, there were cars parked everywhere, people had brought backhoes, former staff, former students, neighbors, everybody came to help."
In a very short time, she said, an assembly line had formed and moved all the books, hand over hand, from the roofless library to a safe classroom.
The school history ends in 1994. A year later, Hurricane Marilyn would do even greater damage to the school — so great, in fact, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed on the need to rebuild the facility from scratch. All of the stonework in the new buildings came from structures originally on the site, Shortt said, because she asked that something of the past be a part of the new facility. She said she's very pleased with the result.
Currently, the school has an enrollment of 385 pupils, about 50 of them in Special Education classes.
Philomen Baron, who worked as custodian at the school for 20 years, has quite a roll call of early teachers and administrators — Rochelle Ellick, Carver Farrow, Rosemary Galiber, Jennifer and Elizabeth Hoover, Rosalia Payne, Lania Rogers.
Others listed in the Peace Corps history book include Laura Chesterfield, Linda Creque, Jean Esannason, Freida Farrow, Lois Hassell-Habteyes, Carmen Lake, Laura Moolenaar, Rosemary Olive and Jean Richards.
Baron said, "It is the Peace Corps School, can't be anything else. I love my school. I love the name Peace Corps."
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