V.I. Dept. of Human Services Secures $42.4 Million to Build State-of-the-Art Head Start Facility on St. Croix and New Facilities in St. Thomas-St. John District

The V.I. Department of Human Services on Thursday announced that it has received official notification that its Head Start Program has been awarded an unprecedented $42,453,995 for new Head Start facilities territory-wide, including a state-of-the-art Head Start slated to be built on the site of the old Charles H. Emmanuel Elementary School, which is located immediately across the street from the Aureo Diaz Heights housing community.

Critically, the funds require no local match, meaning the project won't be bottlenecked by the need for the local government to come up with 10 percent of the funds.

D.H.S. said its Head Start Program applied for the grants in September 2020 and has been working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start. The end goal was to fulfill all requirements for approval to give the Virgin Islands what D.H.S. deemed an "extraordinary and unparalleled" opportunity to rebuild the territory’s Head Start infrastructure with 100 percent federal funding. The local D.H.S. team is also awaiting decisions on two more grants that would increase the current construction total.

The award notably includes funds to:

Construct a state-of-the-art Head Start mega multi-classroom center at the currently shuttered Charles H. Emmanuel Elementary School site

Demolish and rebuild the Concordia Head Start

Construct a Head Start center at the long, unutilized DHS Bolongo property

Construct a mega center at the Tabor and Harmony site

The award will also include other significant upgrades territory-wide, D.H.S. said, though they were not mentioned.

"These grants were complicated and detailed in nature, but the Head Start team fought to secure the resources that will tremendously benefit the territory’s youngest learners for generations to come," D.H.S. said in its release.

D.H.S. Commissioner Kimberley Causey-Gomez said, “I am very proud of the Head Start Team that worked tirelessly to achieve the dream of building state of the art learning environments for our children. These federal awards will support our children’s health and wellbeing in the Virgin Islands and will be supported by this Administration’s ongoing rebuilding efforts to make the Virgin Islands whole again.