{"id":37172,"date":"2016-03-31T12:32:28","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T12:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=37172"},"modified":"2016-03-31T13:07:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T13:07:19","slug":"department-of-education-shutters-alexander-henderson-school-for-one-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=37172","title":{"rendered":"Department Of Education Shutters Alexander Henderson School For One Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">ST. THOMAS &#8212; Virgin Islands Department of Education Commissioner Sharon Ann McCollum announced during a hastily organized press conference on Wednesday at Government House here that in an effort to ensure the health and safety of students and employees, Alexander Henderson Elementary School on St. Croix will be temporarily closed for one week\u2014beginning Friday, April 1 and reopening Monday, April 11\u2014to expedite repairs to a portion of the building\u2019s roof.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The move comes as Rosa Soto-Thomas, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told The Consortium yesterday that she told Education officials she would call the\u00a0Occupational Safety and Health Administration (O.S.H.A.), and file a complaint about the condition D.O.E. officials had her members working in. She said she visited the school on Wednesday and workers of a roofing company\u00a0were conducting work on the school while teachers were working, and immediately demanded that the roofing work stop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;After I said I would call OSHA,\u00a0St. Croix Insular Superintendent Colleen Williams told me that Education was in the process of addressing the issue,&#8221; Mrs. Soto-Thomas said. Indeed, on Wednesday morning, The Consortium and other media outlets received a press invite from Government House about a &#8220;critical Department of Education matter,&#8221; that was to be held the same day at 3:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms. McCollum, however, said\u00a0that contractors had been on site at Henderson School prior to the Easter vacation working on the roof, but rain delayed the work. \u201cWe have made the decision that for us to continue in a timely manner it is necessary to close the school,&#8221; she said, after revealing that &#8220;substantial leaks&#8221; were causing health and safety issues,<span class=\"\">\u00a0&#8220;and we made the decision that for our employees, as well as our students, who are our top priority, it would be best for us to close the school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Ms. Williams reiterated Commissioner McCollum\u2019s remarks. \u201cHealth and safety is extremely important to us. As we address the needs of our particular school, Alexander Henderson, we want to assure our parents and the larger St. Croix community that our efforts are to get our students, faculty and staff back into a healthy environment and that we will be moving to address all the needs that this particular school has,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">Deputy Superintendent Vaugh Hewitt, who is also the lead maintenance official in the St. Croix school district, provided additional details of the work being conducted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">\u201cAt this time, we do have a roofing company working on the roof at Henderson School. They were there during the Easter break, but were unable to complete the work due to the weather. Beginning on March 31, we will deploy a team from our maintenance division that will be at the school looking at other issues that were affected by the leaks,\u201d he said. \u201cThe company informed me that most of the roof is in good condition, but there is one area that needs to be addressed and is being addressed.\u201d Hewitt said the work will be assessed and monitored after the repairs are completed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"\">School Principal Natasha O\u2019Halloran-Smith applauded the district\u2019s decision to close the school to facilitate the repairs. \u201cWhen we return, our hopes is that we will be in an environment that we can provide the safety that our students and staff needs in order to give students the education we desire them to have,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ST. THOMAS &#8212; Virgin Islands Department of Education Commissioner Sharon Ann McCollum announced during a hastily organized press conference on Wednesday at Government House here that in an effort to ensure the health and safety of students and employees, Alexander Henderson Elementary School on St. Croix will be temporarily closed for one week\u2014beginning Friday, April [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,1078,2474,147],"tags":[864],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Department Of Education Shutters Alexander Henderson School For One Week - V.I. 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I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Department Of Education Shutters Alexander Henderson School For One Week - V.I. 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