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HomeNewsLocal newsCAHS, Woodson Issues Are Part of Reconstruction Process, Mapp Says

CAHS, Woodson Issues Are Part of Reconstruction Process, Mapp Says

Charlotte Amalie High School (File photo)
Charlotte Amalie High School (File photo)

Charlotte Amalie High School is still scheduled to open for the school year on Thursday, but issues caused by the buildings at the back part of the property being condemned are throwing some monkey wrenches into the plan.

During a news conference Monday, Gov. Kenneth Mapp and Department of Education officials reported updates of plans for school openings over the next two weeks, and the issues with CAHS were high on the list.

CAHS and Ivanna Eudora Kean high schools are both scheduled to open Thursday, but at CAHS 33 classrooms are down, and the plan is to have teachers share their spaces until more modular classrooms can be shipped in and set up to replace the school’s older three story structure in section B – which engineers describe as “structurally unsound” and said can collapse from any major seismic activity.

Asked during the news conference on St. Thomas why it took a year to identify the structural issues, Education officials said getting the schools ready has been an ongoing process, subject to federal regulations and guidelines, and that they were “happy” the damage was identified before students line up for the start of school.

Nine to 12 months was the timeline given for evaluating all the structures in the territory, and Insular Superintendent Dionne Wells-Hedrington added that the department is filling classrooms as supplies – including furniture and kitchen equipment – come in.

Moving on from the CAHS update, officials were peppered about concerns from parents and teachers at other schools, including John H. Woodson Junior High on St. Croix, which one media representative said was receiving Monday students from Arthur Richards Junior High but experienced complaints from teachers who said site work on the property was “haphazard and rushed.”

Mapp said concerns over mold on the campus was the source of the complaints, and that a series of air quality tests are being conducted not only at Woodson but at most school sites. He said the results of those tests will be published on the Education Department’s website – and existing school sites – to keep faculty, students and parents abreast of what’s going on.

Arthur Richards, he added, was a site slated for reconstruction, but contractor AECOM didn’t meet the schedule.

“We are responding to a disaster that took place a year ago – the schools, like our homes, are still under repair and construction and we are still working under the reality of that situation,” Mapp said. Weighing the reality of the current school conditions with the need to get students back in the classroom, Mapp said there is going to be “some level of inconvenience and some level of construction” but that the government will take seriously any valid complaints, mold included.

Responding to a question about the impact of deferred school maintenance on the damages incurred as a result of last fall’s hurricanes, Mapp added that there is consideration from the federal government to treat “pre-existing conditions” at public school sites as they would hurricane damages. If half of the site is damaged and qualifies for federal reimbursements, then those deferred maintenance issues could be fixed, or there is also a commitment by the feds to completely reconstruct facilities that need it, he said.

Not losing momentum from that process means staffing the Education Department’s maintenance division properly instead of cutting jobs, and maintaining a “robust” maintenance budget that gives those workers the supplies and the support needed to maintain what the government hopes will be a new fleet of hurricane resilient schools.

Bottom line, though, the work won’t be completed in a year, he said.

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