On Wednesday, lawmakers at the Education and Workforce Development Committee heard testimony on the state of the territory’s public schools, with officials reporting that schools are mired in a widespread infrastructure crisis.
With chronic disrepair and neglect visible in nearly every facility, schools across the Virgin Islands face persistent and pervasive problems, including extensive mold infestations and outdated wiring. Electrical, mechanical, and structural issues are a daily reality for students and staff.
“Nearly every school requires some form of emergency intervention, including major plumbing and electrical repairs as well as remediation of suspected mold and air quality issues,” said Craig Benjamin, executive director of the Bureau of School Construction and Maintenance.
Roof leaks, faulty air conditioning, and corroded pipes routinely force relocations or closures. In some cases, water has infiltrated electrical conduits, posing severe hazards. “In some cases, the electrical conduits contain more water than the actual water supply line. It’s a safety hazard we can’t ignore,” said Benjamin.
Health and safety concerns have escalated. Classrooms frequently reach unsafe temperatures, and persistent mold triggers respiratory illnesses among students and teachers. “Teachers, staff, and students are getting sick from the constant exposure to mold, extreme heat, and inconsistent potable water.” said Leontyne Jones, President of the St. Thomas-St. John Federation of Teachers.
Lunch warehouses often lack adequate air conditioning, at times exceeding safe temperatures for canned goods. Restrooms and water lines fail repeatedly, creating unsanitary conditions. Union leaders have filed multiple OSHA complaints, leading to site inspections and reports documenting violations such as mold, extreme heat, and electrical hazards.
Emergency repairs have become routine as the school system’s $3 million annual maintenance budget is stretched thin. Of that amount, “approximately $2.1 million is already committed to essential supplies and maintenance contracts, including landscaping, janitorial services, trash removal and pest control, which are vital to maintaining basic school operations,” said Benjamin. “This leaves only about $900,000 to respond to daily emergencies, perform urgent repairs and prepare facilities for the opening of the 2026–2027 school year.”
Procurement delays and contractor shortages continue to disrupt repairs. “Some of them are reluctant for lack of payment or current payments from the government,” said Paul Harrigan, assistant director of school maintenance. “When you talk to them, they have a lot of different issues, but mostly it’s with being paid on a timely fashion.”
Benjamin testified that these problems extend across the Virgin Islands: “The infrastructure across all schools have been severely compromised, with many facilities in poor condition.” Routine inspections must compete with emergencies for the department’s limited resources, forcing the system to respond to breakdowns rather than prevent them.
As a result, schools often wind up in a patchwork state of repair, with staff and students adapting to broken equipment, classroom relocations, and temporary fixes that rarely last.
The infrastructure decline extends directly to learning. Physical education classes are sometimes held in corridors because of unsafe gym conditions, and the lack of adequate air conditioning makes attentive instruction difficult. Students and staff contend with classrooms condemned for mold or heat, sometimes rotating rooms or using makeshift spaces to keep programs running. Bus breakdowns and unreliable special-education transport disrupt attendance and place further stress on families.
Lawmakers raised alarms over significant lost federal funds and a maintenance system stymied by bureaucratic roadblocks.
Sen. Kurt A. Vialet explained that the territory was originally awarded a substantial sum through federal ARPA grants, known as the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided emergency resources for school repairs and upgrades in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had access to a tremendous amount of money in ARPA,” he said.
Vialet said that many of the contracts had expired with no one tracking them. However, after delays and legal challenges, including a class-action lawsuit, the federal government stepped in to give the Virgin Islands a second chance.“They told us, ‘We’re going to reinstate the funds and give you an opportunity to spend them, but you have to do it by a certain deadline.’ That gave us the chance to recoup more than $30 million. But in that process, we already lost some of the money because contracts expired.”
The hearing laid bare a system where maintenance contracts expire, emergency repairs stall, and no single agency takes clear responsibility for keeping schools functional. “We have these contracts… we don’t know when they expire,” Vialet continued. “Somebody’s got to be paying attention.”
The consequences are stark: some repair funds have gone unused through administrative missteps, and students are learning in makeshift spaces, “I got a video today with the teachers outside teaching, with the students outside the classroom,” said Sen. Avery L. Lewis.
Lawmakers questioned whether shifting from in-house maintenance to costly third-party contracts has weakened accountability and oversight. “I was the principal of complex from 1995 to 2011; we never had a contractor to cut the grass. The grass was cut in-house… at one point, the Department of Education maintenance division had a grass-cutting unit of three or four individuals who would go from school to school to cut,” recalled Vialet. “Now, we’re paying for everything instead of utilizing the staff that we have.”
By the end of the hearing, lawmakers called for fundamental changes to how school maintenance is managed. Senators urged the territory to rebuild in-house maintenance teams, create clear and consistent protocols for managing and renewing contracts, and establish unified oversight with well-defined lines of responsibility between agencies. They also pressed for comprehensive planning and regular reporting to ensure accountability.
“We need to come with a comprehensive plan,” said Lewis “We can’t continue doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, that’s insanity.”
St. Croix Source
Local news
