Three Government Agencies Fail to Appear at School Readiness Hearing
The fall semester for public schools starts in early August, and the 34th Legislature Committee on Education and Workforce Development called a hearing to look at school readiness. Testifiers appearing on-site and virtually, on screen, shared assessments and reports based on their own inspections and discoveries.
2022-07-18 14:23:12 - VI News Staff
Officials from the Board of Education, Health Department, and the Fire Service appeared before the committee, chaired by St. Croix Sen. Genevieve Whitaker. But no one from the primary agency the committee sought out — the Education Department — came.
Committee member and Senate President Donna Frett-Gregory said she was frustrated by the many times that key witnesses failed to show up over the issue of school readiness. Chief among her frustrations is school maintenance or the lack thereof.
Testifiers who did appear, however, did share updates on their efforts to get schools ready to open their doors for the start of the fall semester.
Board of Education Chairman Kyza Callwood spoke for close to an hour about visits he and others from the board made to schools in the St. Thomas-St. John and the St. Croix districts. Extensive details offered included maintenance and repairs of buildings, fire safety, staffing and vacancies, and whether the number of students in a classroom should drop because of a smaller overall enrollment.
Assistant Health Commissioner Nicole Craigwell-Syms told Education committee members about inspections conducted by the department’s Division of Environmental Health. Syms said the inspectors’ focus was health and safety conditions in public school kitchens.
And Deputy Fire Service Assistant Director Antonio Stevens gave a progress report on fire safety preparedness. St. Thomas district Sen. Carla Joseph expressed concern about the number of schools that Fire did not have safety reports for, but Stevens said inspections are still in progress.
There also appeared to be some confusion about the number of fire safety inspection reports received by the Board of Education.