Aug. 28, 2001 — Short of staff and with the possibility of less federal funding in the future, Labor Commissioner Cecil Benjamin urged senators on Monday not to cut his department’s budget any further.
Benjamin, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, said the Labor Department employs about 100 fewer people now than three years ago. That has contributed to low morale and a lack of service for customers, he said.
The department’s overall $12.2 budget request for fiscal year 2002 is almost $1 million less than last year because of dwindling federal funds.
The $12.2 million is a "bare-bones" request consisting of $2.2 million from the General Fund, $2.2 million from the Government Insurance Fund, $490,000 from the Union Arbitration Fund and $7.4 million from the federal government.
"A short-staffed situation exists," Benjamin said. "We cannot do what needs to be done with less than is proposed at this time."
Three years ago there were 259 employees in the Labor Department. Now, due to retirements and resignations, there are 156, Benjamin said. Because of the loss of staff and the cuts in federal funding, the department is becoming increasingly inefficient, he said.
"These shortages have literally crippled our ability to provide viable programs in the community," Benjamin said, adding that because of less federal funding, the department will "likely be required to play a major role in absorbing" the changes.
Rent is a major expense for the department — $700,000 a year. Benjamin said his goal is to have a "one-stop" building constructed to house all Labor functions. A contractor, Hyde Park Perini, has been selected to develop a proposal within the next two years for such a complex on St. Croix, he said.
Meanwhile, in other committee action, senators blasted the Turnbull administration for its FY 2002 budget proposal for the Office of Veterans Affairs. The administration request is $246,906, about $17,000 less than last fiscal year. Fernando Webster, appointed to head the office in early July, said he wasn’t involved in preparing the budget request.
He told senators a more realistic budget for the agency is about $305,000.
Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel, chair of the Senate Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, harshly criticized the administration’s treatment of veterans in the budget. She said the 10,000-plus veterans in the territory deserve more and noted that Veterans Affairs doesn’t even have an office on St. Thomas.
"It is an absolute disgrace to tell the veterans of the territory that this is all the money … that this is all you are worth to us," Pickard-Samuel said. "Someone needs to be accountable for this insult to veterans."

Aug. 28, 2001 – The start of school for students at the Michael J. Kirwan Elementary School will be delayed by one day while debris is removed from classrooms and other last-minute cleaning and an electrical inspection are carried out.
The electrical inspection of the kitchen and cafeteria will necessitate lunch being brought in from a satellite location on Wednesday when the Kirwan students are slated to return to school.
A release from the Education Department said reporting dates have been changed slightly due to the delay in school opening.
Here is the new reporting schedule:
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 8:15 a.m.: Grades 1 to 6. (Placement cards will be handed out starting at 7:30 a.m.)
Thursday, Aug. 30, from 8-11:30 a.m. – Kindergartners with last names beginning A – L.
Friday, Aug. 31, from 8 to 11:30 a.m.– Kindergartners with last names beginning M – Z.
In the release, Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds said Kirwan School underwent major repairs over the summer.

Aug. 28, 2001 — The question of who owns the submerged lands that former President Bill Clinton as designated national monuments will take at least a month to answer.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said Monday she recently spoke to the attorney in the U.S. Government Accounting Office who is charged with issuing a legal opinion on the disagreement over ownership of the lands. Christensen told WSTX radio that "because of the slow transition at the Interior Department . . . the information coming from Interior has been" delayed.
Christensen said GAO officials told her last week that they had received the last bit of information requested from Interior and it will take about six weeks for an opinion to be issued.
"We are anticipating some time in October we should get a legal opinion on the ownership of the monuments," Christensen said.
In the last days of his administration, Clinton created the 12,700-acre V.I. Coral Reef National Monument off St. John and expanded the Buck Island Reef National Monument off St. Croix by 18,000 acres. The designation and expansion, which ban fishing, anchoring and other activities in the area in order to conserve and restore coral reef ecosystems and marine life, have raised the ire of local politicians who claim the land in question belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands.
In May, Gov. Charles Turnbull wrote newly appointed Interior Secretary Gale Norton and reiterated the V.I. government’s position. Turnbull said the issue needed to be settled before any management plans for the areas are put in place. According to Clinton's proclamation, the National Park Service has two years to prepare a management plan for Buck Island and three years for the St. John monument.
Those who contend that the submerged land belongs to the territory point to an act carried out by then-President Gerald Ford in 1974 that transferred the land in question to the Virgin Islands. However, the Interior Department under former Secretary Bruce Babbitt disagreed.

Aug. 28, 2001 — The question of who owns the submerged lands that former President Bill Clinton designated as national monuments will take at least a month to answer.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen said Monday she recently spoke to the attorney in the U.S. Government Accounting Office who is charged with issuing a legal opinion on the disagreement over ownership of the lands. Christensen told WSTX radio that "because of the slow transition at the Interior Department . . . the information coming from Interior has been" delayed.
Christensen said GAO officials told her last week that they had received the last bit of information requested from Interior and it will take about six weeks for an opinion to be issued.
"We are anticipating some time in October we should get a legal opinion on the ownership of the monuments," Christensen said.
In the last days of his administration, Clinton created the 12,700-acre V.I. Coral Reef National Monument off St. John and expanded the Buck Island Reef National Monument off St. Croix by 18,000 acres. The designation and expansion, which ban fishing, anchoring and other activities in the area in order to conserve and restore coral reef ecosystems and marine life, have raised the ire of local politicians who claim the land in question belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands.
In May, Gov. Charles Turnbull wrote newly appointed Interior Secretary Gale Norton and reiterated the V.I. government’s position. Turnbull said the issue needed to be settled before any management plans for the areas are put in place. According to Clinton's proclamation, the National Park Service has two years to prepare a management plan for Buck Island and three years for the St. John monument.
Those who contend that the submerged land belongs to the territory point to an act carried out by then-President Gerald Ford in 1974 that transferred the land in question to the Virgin Islands. However, the Interior Department under former Secretary Bruce Babbitt disagreed.

Aug. 28, 2001 — Members of the American Federation of Teachers unions in the territory will gather in the next few days to ratify a new contract, union officials said Monday.
However, they did not disclose any details of the proposed new deal.
Contract negotiations started about a week ago. They were initially aimed at increasing the starting salaries for public school teachers. But because the Turnbull administration had found $10 million to pay salary step increases to government workers following a strike by AFT members late last year, teachers wanted the current negotiations to focus on across-the-board raises.
AFT and government negotiators agreed on a contract late Friday, said Tyrone Molyneaux, St. Croix AFT chapter president. The St. Croix chapter will hold a ratification meeting Wednesday or Thursday. The St. Thomas-St. John AFT chapter will vote Wednesday, said Glen Smith, its president.
Without giving any details, Molyneaux said he was "comfortable" with the proposed agreement.
"Instead of only entry-level increases, the talks centered around salary increases for all members," he said.
Molyneaux said the negotiations lacked the bad feelings present last year when talks were held during a three-week AFT strike.
"The government appeared to be willing to bend more this time around," he said.
Smith said the parties started with a wide gap and negotiations were difficult. But after ground rules were agreed on that included supplementary raises for all AFT members, talks moved swiftly.
"We were both striving to reach middle ground," Smith said. "Now it’s up to the members."

Aug. 28, 2001 — Members of the American Federation of Teachers unions in the territory will gather in the next few days to ratify a new contract, union officials said Monday.
Contract negotiations started about a week ago and were initially aimed at increasing the starting salaries for public school teachers in the territory. But after the Turnbull administration found $10 million to pay salary step increases to government workers following a strike by AFT members late last year, teachers wanted negotiations to focus on across-the-board raises.
AFT and government negotiators agreed on a contract late Friday, said Tyrone Molyneaux, St. Croix AFT chapter president. The St. Croix chapter will hold a ratification meeting on either Wednesday or Thursday. The St. Thomas-St. John AFT chapter will vote on Wednesday, said its president, Glen Smith.
Without giving any details, Molyneaux said he was "comfortable" with the proposed agreement.
"Instead of only entry level increases, the talks centered around salary increases for all members," he said.
Molyneaux said the negotiations lacked the bad feelings present last year when talks were held during a three week AFT strike.
"The government appeared to be willing to bend more this time around…," he said.
Smith said the parties started with a wide gap and that negotiations were difficult. But after ground rules were agreed on that included supplementary raises for all AFT members, talks moved swiftly.
"We were both striving to reach middle ground," smith said. "Now it’s up to the members."

Aug. 27, 2001 – One small class will be combined with another at J. Antonio Jarvis School, and a music teacher will switch to a different classroom. Those are the stop-gap solutions to the threat posed by an old classroom building on the schoolgrounds that was identified more than two years ago as being structurally unsound.
The decision to not use the aging Conrad Building at the Jarvis School came before a meeting Friday of officials of the Education, Public Works, Property and Procurement, Planning and Natural Resources and Police Departments and Fire Services and the Office of the Governor, according to Education spokeswoman Juel Anderson.
The officials met to decide what to do in the face of reports that the more than 100-year-old Conrad Building on Prindsens Gade has major structural damage that could endanger children and staff at the school.
The officials decided not to use the building until it can be assessed and any necessary repairs are made. They also decided to erect a wooden barricade to keep people away from the Conrad Building and an adjacent abandoned building on the school grounds. The barricade was built over the weekend, and Anderson said school officials were confident it would keep the children away from any possible danger the old buildings might pose.
Instead of taking children to the music classroom in the Conrad Building, the music teacher will use a formerly empty room in the main Jarvis building, Anderson said Monday.
The only other Conrad Building room that had been scheduled for use was for a relatively small kindergarten class. The pupils now will be combined with another small kindergarten class.
"The children won’t be affected," Anderson said of the logistical change. There will still be fewer than 16 students in the class.
As far back as June of 1999, government officials have been aware of the possible dangers posed by the old buildings.
In a letter dated June 19, 1999, to Myron Jackson, then Historic Preservation Office senior planner, Martin Weaver, an architect with experience in preserving historic buildings, wrote that the Conrad Building had a large diagonal crack indicative of structural damage to the foundation. That crack posed an immediate danger of structural failure, Weaver said. And so did the possibility that water flowing past the building might have damaged floor joists and contributed to termite damage and decay.
"Since this is an elementary school with small children in it, the combination of phenomena appears to pose a serious and unacceptable risk," Weaver wrote to Jackson. "I would strongly recommend that you should inform the responsible senior officer, who I believe is the commissioner of the Department of Education."
The Historic Preservation Office passed the information along to Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds in a letter dated July 6, 1999. In that letter, officials in the Historic Preservation Office stated that both the Conrad Building and the adjacent abandoned building "pose a threat to both the school’s student body and the public."
Last week, Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel charged that Jarvis School, where she said she sends one of her children, is unsafe. She said she learned of the problems during discussions about possible uses for $200,000 that is to go toward repairs at the school.
Architects will begin a thorough assessment of the Conrad Building and the abandoned structure on Tuesday, Anderson said. After they submit their report, officials will decide what to do with the historic structures.
Education officials did not respond to questions Monday about why it took more than two years to address a situation potentially dangerous to the children attending the school.

Aug. 27, 2001 – St. John's two private, non-parochial schools both show large increases in enrollment for the new academic year.
When The Coral Bay School opens its doors on Tuesday for its second year of operation, it will have more than twice as many students as it did in its first year.
Co-administrator Scott Crawford said 30 students are now enrolled, up from 13 last year. As part of its growth plan to add a grade a year through senior high school, Coral Bay has now added 10th grade to last year's offerings of grades 7 through 9. But the new students are spread throughout all the grades, he said.
"Some are new to the island, some were home schooled or from other schools, and four are coming from St. Thomas," Crawford said.
To keep up with the growth, The Coral Bay School added two full-time teachers for a total of four and two more part-time teachers for a total of three. The school, housed at the Lumberyard shopping complex, also has expanded into adjacent space there, and this has allowed for the creation of a new science lab and a student common area.
Pine Peace School, which offers pre-school through grade 6, has added more than 40 students this year, administrator Beth Knight said. The new school year began Wednesday.
While Pine Peace has not hired any additional teachers it has replaced those who left at the end of last school year. Knight said the school has introduced pottery classes for this year and has changed the focus of its physical education classes to make them more fitness oriented. "They have yoga," she said.
Knight, who took over the administrator's post this year, said she sees more people interested in sending their children to private school. The appeals of Pine Peace include an extensive computer laboratory and "incredible teachers," she said, and private schools have more resources in general than public schools. "The supplies are there," she said, and "there's more parental involvement."
St. John's only private parochial school, Cruz Bay Baptist School, is scheduled to open for the new academic year on Sept. 4. No one there could be reached for information.

Aug. 27, 2001 — The Turnbull administration is planning to have the burned-out music suite at Charlotte Amalie High School completed in time for the new school year.
In a release, Property and Procurement Commissioner Marc Biggs said work on the music suite, which was heavily damaged by fire in March of 2000, should be completed by the time students return to school. This Friday will be the first full day of classes.
Biggs' comment came after Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds said on Thursday that work was expected to be completed and the room reopened shortly after school started.
"The music suite should be ready for occupancy after Labor Day," said Keith Richards, the governor’s assistant for capital improvement projects. Labor Day is next Monday.
Meanwhile, on St. Croix, work was scheduled to begin Monday on the east wing of the Elena Christian Junior High School, more than a year and a half after Hurricane Lenny damaged it in November of 1999.
Biggs said $1.4 million will be expended in Phase III of the renovations at the school. He said Phase I consisted of temporary measures to get one wing of the school ready for the 2000-01 academic year after Hurricane Lenny hit. He said Phase II defined the scope of work that had to be done to repair and rehabilitate the school properly.
"The initial estimate for the repair of Buildings D and E, including electrical, mechanical and plumbing, is approximately $2 million," Biggs said in a release Friday. "It should be noted, however, that the scope of work involves the replacement of the roof and the demolition of existing wall structures and rebuilding it with concrete blocks."
With about $1.4 million currently available for Elena Christian repairs, Biggs said he has scheduled the work to be contracted and completed in two phases. Phase III-A will include the repair and renovation of Building D, which at present is not being used. Once it's ready for use, staff and students now using Building E will move to Building D, and the renovation work will proceed to Phase III-B.

Aug. 27, 2001 — Work is scheduled to begin Monday on the east wing of the Elena Christian Junior High School on St. Croix, more than a year and a half after Hurricane Lenny damaged it in 1999.
Property and Procurement Commissioner Marc Biggs said $1.4 million worth of work is set to start on Phase III of the renovations at the St. Croix school. Phase I involved temporary measures to prepare one wing of the school for the 2000 instructional year after Hurricane Lenny hit St. Croix in November 1999. Phase II defined the scope of work that had to be done to properly repair and rehabilitate the school.
"The initial estimate for the repair of Building D and E, including electrical, mechanical and plumbing is approximately $2 million," Biggs said in a release Friday. "It should be noted, however, that the scope of work involves the replacement of the roof and the demolition of existing wall structures and rebuilding it with concrete blocks."
Given the availability of approximately $1.4 million for the Elena Christian School repairs, Biggs said he has scheduled the work to be contracted and completed in two phases. Phase IIIA will include the repair and renovation of Building D, which is presently not being used. Once completed, school staff and students now using Building E will occupy it and the renovation will begin on Phase IIIB.
Gov. Charles Turnbull toured the derelict east wing of Elena Christian in May. The loss of space has forced some teachers to move from classroom to classroom throughout the school day.
Some two months after Hurricane Lenny struck St. Croix, Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II and Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds toured the school. James said then that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had documented the need for $137,482 worth of work that included repairing the roof, windows and louvers, and replacing ceiling and floor tiles.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christian Christensen had said then that FEMA hazard mitigation funding was available for Elena Christian, conditional on matching dollars from the local government.
But a year and a half later, the east wing of the school sits unused and deteriorating. Windows are boarded if not broken, and sections of exterior siding are missing, allowing a clear view of the rusting steel frame.