US Senate subcommittee considers park land lease for USVI school
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| Published on Saturday, April 26, 2008 |
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By Susan Mann
Caribbean Net News US Virgin Islands Correspondent
Email: susan@caribbeannetnews.com
ST THOMAS, USVI: Testifying before the US Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on National Parks, US Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen urged the panel to give favourable consideration to HR 53, a bill that would authorize the US Secretary of Interior to enter into a long term lease with the government of the US Virgin Islands to provide land on StJohn for a school.
Christensen, who chairs the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Insular Affairs in the House, told the subcommittee that the children of St John are in dire need of a new school.
“Despite the hard work and dedication of the administrators and teachers at the school, not only is the (current) environment not conducive to education, but it is extremely unsafe,” she said.
“Since the 1970s, public school enrollment on St. John has more than doubled,” Christensen said.
“The two existing public schools, Julius E. Sprauve and the Guy H. Benjamin Elementary School, can only accommodate children up to the ninth grade, and St Johnian high school children have to travel to St Thomas, 20 minutes by ferry over open ocean to complete their secondary education,” she explained.
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| Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen and Lorelei Monsanto of One Campus, St John listen to the members of the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks as they discuss HR 53, Christensen’s proposal to lease land from the National Park for a school on St John. Photo by Shanna O’Reilly |
Both Subcommittee Chairman Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Ranking Member Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) expressed reservations about the proposed lease because of National Park Service System objections and the fear of setting a precedent that could be followed by other communities that wanted National Park land for “civic purposes.”
NPS Representative Dan Wenk testified that the proposed lease was “inconsistent with the purpose for which the park was created.”
Christensen testified that “St. John’s situation is sufficiently unique that it sets no viable precedent. I am sure that during the course of the lease some way will be found to transfer valuable land to the Park which can be counted against this property which is not part of the original Park land,” she said.
Christensen’s testimony was bolstered by the testimony of Lorelei Monsanto of One Campus, a St John advocacy organization formed to promote the creation of a new school for the children of St John.
Monsanto called for the National Park Service to enter into a partnership with the St John community to make the school a reality. She told the panel under questioning that other options had been explored and that a land swap was not supported by the community.
“Our resources are limited,” she said. “We need to find out how we can make this happen."
Both Senators Akaka and Burr expressed hope that a solution could be found, possibly in obtaining land for the school from property slated to be acquired by the National Park that had not yet become a part of the system.
The bill, H.R. 53, was passed unanimously by the House, authorizes the Secretary of Interior to enter into a long term lease with the Government of the Virgin Islands to provide land on St John for a school.
Christensen told the House that the issue has been before the Virgin Islands community for the past 30 years. National Park advocates on St John, while acknowledging the need of a new school on the island, have published numerous stories in the local media against passage of the bill. | | | | Reads : 85 |
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