Governor implores Virgin Islanders to take advantage of options available and on the table now and not to squander opportunities and risk further delay to benefit St. John students
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS — During the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the new Arthur A. Richards pre-K-8th grade school on St. Croix on Thursday, February 23, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. urged residents to act now to provide a school for students on St. John.
The Governor’s statement is in response to opposition to a land-swap on St. John between the Government of the Virgin Islands and the National Park Service that would allow moving ahead with construction of a new school on the island.
Governor Bryan said the priority should be for building a school on St. John and, while a land-swap is not the ideal solution he would want, it can make the school a reality now and letting this opportunity pass by could result in another decade before a better solution is found.
“When I hear what is going on St. John with people protesting against the land-swap and the school, I remember we’ve been talking about that school for 20 years,” the Governor said. “The fact of the matter is that we have to consider the options that are before us when we move forward. We can’t consider options that are not before us.
“I don’t like the fact that we have to swap out land with the National Park. Who likes that?” Governor Bryan said. “But guess what, it’s either do that now or do nothing at all. And that’s what we have to remember, it’s either that, or nothing at all. Because we’ll be sitting and spinning our wheels and wishing on the wind that it will happen, and 40 years from now when this new school is falling apart, we still won’t have one on St. John.”
The Bryan-Roach Administration is investing in the Territory’s people, infrastructure and future through transparency, stabilizing the economy, restoring trust in the government and ensuring that recovery projects are completed as quickly as possible. Visit transparency.vi.gov