With most campuses scheduled to open on time Wednesday, the Virgin Islands Department of Education and the Bureau of School Construction and Maintenance are making last-minute adjustments to the 2025–2026 school year calendar to accommodate ongoing repair work at public schools on St. Croix.
While all schools in the St. Thomas–St. John District will open as planned on Aug. 13 with regular start and dismissal times, students at St. Croix’s John H. Woodson Junior High School will have to wait. Crews are still completing roof repairs, mold remediation, and the air quality testing required before the building can reopen, according to a VIDE release Monday.
Education officials said there will be no shift to virtual learning for Woodson students in the interim, pointing to data from previous closures that showed many families lacked reliable internet or devices for effective online instruction. Instead, in-person classes will begin once repairs and safety verifications are complete — and officials say all missed instructional time will be made up.
To explain the delay and answer questions, VIDE has scheduled a Teams meeting for Woodson families on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. This year will also be the school’s last in its current building; the new Arthur A. Richards PreK–8 campus is set to open in August 2026, part of the territory’s broader school modernization plan to replace aging facilities with safer, state-of-the-art learning environments.
Three other St. Croix campuses — the Educational Complex, Central High School, and the Career and Technical Education Center — will begin the year on an adjusted 7:40 a.m. to 1:05 p.m. schedule to limit time in peak midday heat while air conditioning upgrades are finalized. Central High and CTEC have already received new AC units, but Complex is still awaiting installation. Because CTEC hosts vocational classes for students from both high schools, all three schedules will remain aligned until the upgrades are finished, according to the release.
The territory’s push to complete critical maintenance before the start of school has been a recurring challenge in recent years, especially after storms and aging infrastructure revealed widespread facility needs. Officials say the work now underway — from roof replacements to AC installations — is part of a long-term investment in safer, more comfortable schools.
In Monday’s release, VIDE and BSCM leaders emphasized that health and safety remain their top priorities and thanked the public for its patience. “While these adjustments may be inconvenient, the upgrades we’re making are necessary to ensure our schools are ready for the future,” the agencies said in a joint statement.
