{"id":28814,"date":"2015-09-21T09:20:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T09:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=28814"},"modified":"2015-09-21T09:20:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T09:20:10","slug":"expectations-and-spirits-high-at-opening-of-school-celebration-service-on-st-croix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=28814","title":{"rendered":"Expectations And Spirits High At Opening Of School Celebration Service On St. Croix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">ST. CROIX \u2013<\/span><span class=\"\"> The Virgin Islands Department of Education hosted the second of two Opening of School Celebration Services\u2014this time on St. Croix\u2014at the historic Bethel A.M.E Church in downtown Christiansted on Sunday, September 20, a press release DOE issued late Sunday has made known.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">The gathering commemorated the first opening of a new school year under the Mapp-Potter Administration and was marked by a rousing sermon exploring the importance of setting high expectations in the new school year. The message was delivered by Reverend Carlos Perkins, pastor of St. Luke A.M.E. Church on St. Croix and a new member of the Education family, working alongside Victor Sommes at St. Croix\u2019s Alternative Education Program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Using New Testament scripture found in the Gospel of Luke 8:40, which chronicled the actions of a crowd awaiting Jesus to perform miracles of healing, Rev. Perkins told congregants that \u201cJesus will show up at your church, workplace or Government House when you expect him to do so.\u201d Additionally, he urged listeners to \u201csit in a position of expectation,\u201d adding, \u201cThis year, you should expect great things from your teachers, students and administrators. Expect God to do great things for your families and communities. The best is yet to come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Bethel A.M.E., which will celebrate its 100<sup class=\"\">th<\/sup> anniversary in 2020, was filled with Education and government officials, including Commissioner Sharon Ann McCollum, Governor Kenneth Mapp, Assistant Commissioner Chermaine Hobson-Johnson, Superintendent Colleen Williams, Deputy Superintendents Vaughn Hewitt and Faith Dane George, St. Croix Administrator Stephanie Williams and other luminaries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">During her remarks, Commissioner McCollum said, \u201cWe have great expectations in the Department of Education and my role is to set those expectations. To whom much is given much is expected. I didn\u2019t get in this to fail; we are going to produce.\u201d She said the Education Department\u2019s 2015-16 theme, <i class=\"\">Transformation Through Teamwork,<\/i> resulted from the shared commitment across the St. Croix and St. Thomas-St. John Districts, and asked congregants to offer daily prayers for the Department and its leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Governor Mapp, who remains a longtime member of Bethel A.M.E. along with members of his family, reiterated his support of the Education Department, as he did at the September 13 Celebration Service held at the St. Thomas Assembly of God Church in Estate Contant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">\u201cI am going to support the Department of Education and on October 1 at the beginning of fiscal year 2016, we are going to raise the salaries and pay of teachers and principals,\u201d he remarked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">The St. Croix Central High School band offered its talents to the success of the gathering, with renditions of the classic hymns <i class=\"\">Amazing Grace<\/i> and <i class=\"\">Rock of Ages<\/i>. Additionally, the Bethel Youth Choir gave an energetic performance of the popular gospel tune, \u201cI Know Who I Am\u201d by Sinach.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Bethel A.M.E. Pastor Reverend Uklyn A. Hendricks presided over the ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. CROIX \u2013 The Virgin Islands Department of Education hosted the second of two Opening of School Celebration Services\u2014this time on St. Croix\u2014at the historic Bethel A.M.E Church in downtown Christiansted on Sunday, September 20, a press release DOE issued late Sunday has made known. The gathering commemorated the first opening of a new school [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1078,11,191,147],"tags":[2121],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Expectations And Spirits High At Opening Of School Celebration Service On St. Croix - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ST. 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