Nov. 9, 2007 — The Board of Education voted unanimously Friday to ask the Legislature to pass a bill extending public-school education on St. John through grade 12.
A law passed in 1957 mandated that school run only through ninth grade, said board Chairwoman Debra Smith Watlington.
The board, meeting on St. John for the first time in its history, heard from St. John resident Lorelei Monsanto of the One Campus Group about its efforts to push the U.S. Congress to authorize a lease of land within V.I. National Park so the local government can build a school that runs from kindergarten through grade 12.
"We need a full state-of-the-art school — a new way of educating youth," Monsanto said. Since the school will sit within a national park, it should be an eco-friendly school, she said.
A bill to authorize the lease of 10 acres at Susannaberg for the school has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate has yet to take up the matter.
The school building will run $5 million to $10 million, Monsanto told the board.
St. John resident Alice Krall, the mother of a fourth-grade Julius E. Sprauve School student, described how she's tried since the start of school in September to find out when the fourth and fifth grades will get permanent teachers.
"There's been a lot of passing of the buck," Krall said.
The fourth grade is taught by a retiree who will only work till December, she said, while the fifth-grade teacher is the school's permanent substitute, who is not prepared for the rigors of a regular class.
The school also lost its gifted and talented teacher and the transition class was abolished, Krall said. The school was promised three teachers from Jamaica, but immigration and transportation hurdles kept them in that country past the start of school. Now she understands they have declined to come because they don't want to take their children out of school in the middle of the semester, Krall said.
She called many people throughout the government until she finally got so frustrated that she called Gov. John deJongh Jr. for help.
Later, the board passed a motion to request a monthly tally of school staffing from the Education Department.
Board member Judy Gomez said she has heard of situations where paraprofessionals are teaching classes.
The board heard a presentation from Eduardo Corneiro, who serves as the Education Department's state director of career and technical education. A 2005 study showed that there are 28,310 adults in the territory who do not have a high school diploma, he said. And over the last 15 years, he said, about 5,000 students dropped out of school.
At the request of board member Nereida Rivera O'Reilly, the board passed a motion to request that Seaborne Airlines set up a pilot-training program for its employees who do jobs like move luggage and tie down the plane.
The board also heard a recitation of poems by two Sprauve School students, Marcus Stevens and Savannah Anthony. They each received a $25 gift certificate to Dockside Books on St. Thomas for their efforts.
"We like to encourage you to read," Watlington said.
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