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H.R. 53, VIRGIN ISLANDS 

NATIONAL PARK 

SCHOOL LEASE ACT

LEGISLATIVE FIELD HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INSULAR AFFAIRS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

Monday, July 9, 2007, in Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI

Serial No. 110-34

Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html 

or 

Committee address: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov 

(II)

COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES 

NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia, Chairman 

DON YOUNG, Alaska, Ranking Republican Member

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan 

Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa 

Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii 

Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas 

Frank Pallone, Jr., New Jersey 

Donna M. Christensen, Virgin Islands 

Grace F. Napolitano, California 

Rush D. Holt, New Jersey 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam 

Jim Costa, California 

Dan Boren, Oklahoma 

John P. Sarbanes, Maryland 

George Miller, California 

Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts 

Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon 

Maurice D. Hinchey, New York 

Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island 

Ron Kind, Wisconsin 

Lois Capps, California 

Jay Inslee, Washington 

Mark Udall, Colorado 

Joe Baca, California 

Hilda L. Solis, California 

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, South Dakota 

Heath Shuler, North Carolina 

Jim Saxton, New Jersey 

Elton Gallegly, California 

John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee 

Wayne T. Gilchrest, Maryland 

Chris Cannon, Utah 

Thomas G. Tancredo, Colorado 

Jeff Flake, Arizona 

Stevan Pearce, New Mexico 

Henry E. Brown, Jr., South Carolina 

Luis G. Fortun ̃ o, Puerto Rico 

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington 

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana 

Louie Gohmert, Texas 

Tom Cole, Oklahoma 

Rob Bishop, Utah 

Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania 

Dean Heller, Nevada 

Bill Sali, Idaho 

Doug Lamborn, Colorado 

Mary Fallin, Oklahoma 

Kevin McCarthy, California

James H. Zoia, Chief of Staff 

Jeffrey P. Petrich, Chief Counsel 

Lloyd Jones, Republican Staff Director 

Lisa Pittman, Republican Chief Counsel 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INSULAR AFFAIRS 

DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, Virgin Islands, Chairwoman 

LUIS G. FORTUN ̃ O, Puerto Rico, Ranking Republican Member

Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam 

Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia, ex officio 

Elton Gallegly, California 

Jeff Flake, Arizona 

Don Young, Alaska, ex officio 

(III)

CONTENTS 

Page

Hearing held on Monday, July 9, 2007 .................................................................. 1

Statement of Members: 

Christensen, Hon. Donna M., a Delegate in Congress from the Virgin 

Islands ............................................................................................................ 1 

Grijalva, Hon. Rau ́l M., a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Arizona ...................................................................................................... 3

Statement of Witnesses: 

Barshinger, Hon. Craig, Former At-Large-Senator ....................................... 30

Bogle, Martha, Acting Superintendent, Virgin Islands National Park, 

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior ........................... 4

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 5

Cox, Kristen, One Campus Group ................................................................... 22

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 23

Hassell-Forde, Lisa A., Insular Superintendent, Government of the Virgin 

Islands ............................................................................................................ 10

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 11

Jones, Ronnie, Unity Day Group ..................................................................... 20

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 22

Kessler, Joe, President, Friends of Virgin Islands National Park ............... 25

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 27

Monsanto, Lorelei C., One Campus Group ..................................................... 18

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 19

Smith, Hon. Leona, St. John Administrator, Government of the U.S. 

Virgin Islands ................................................................................................ 8

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 9

Sprauve, Gaylord, Resident, U.S. Virgin Islands ........................................... 28

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 29

Wesselhoft, Hon. Carmen Miranda, Senator-at-Large, 28th Legislature of 

the U.S. Virgin Islands ................................................................................. 11

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 13

Additional materials supplied: 

List of individuals submitting information for the record ............................ 41

(1)

LEGISLATIVE FIELD HEARING ON H.R. 53, 

TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF THE 

INTERIOR TO ENTER INTO A LONG-TERM 

LEASE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF THE 

UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS FOR 

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SCHOOL, AND 

FOR OTHER PURPOSES. ‘‘VIRGIN ISLANDS 

NATIONAL PARK SCHOOL LEASE ACT’’

Monday, July 9, 2007

U.S. House of Representatives 

Subcommittee on Insular Affairs 

Committee on Natural Resources 

Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 6:00 p.m.,in the St. 

John Legislature Hearing Room, Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI, Hon. 

Donna Christensen [Chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Christensen and Grijalva.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, A 

DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Good evening. Can everyone hear me? Good 

evening. The legislative hearing by the Subcommittee on Insular 

Affairs will come to order. 

The Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on 

H.R. 53, to authorize the Secretary of Interior to enter into a longterm lease with the Government of the United States Virgin 

Islands for the establishment of a school, and for other purposes. 

Under the Committee Rules, the Chairman and other members 

may make an opening statement. I will begin with my opening 

statement. I want to begin by welcoming my colleague, Mr. Rau ́l 

Grijalva, who is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National 

Parks, Forests and Public Lands of the Committee on Natural 

Resources. He is also a member of the Committee on Education 

and Labor. So, I think it’s very fortuitous for us that Mr. Grijalva 

is here wearing both hats. One, on the Education Committee, and 

two, as Chair of the Subcommittee on Parks. 

And this is a very important hearing as can be witnessed by the 

number of people in attendance this evening, and I’m sure some 

more will join us as we go on from here. I don’t think there is any 

more important issue before the people of St. John right now than 

securing suitable land to construct a school. 

I want to welcome everyone who came out this evening, especially our witnesses, those who will give written testimony and 

those who will give oral testimony as well. 

2

We received written statements thus far from Mr. Alvis 

Christian, Mr. Steve Black, Ms. Crystal Fortwangler and Ms. 

Myrtle Barry. They will be included in the record of tonight’s hearing, and we welcome anyone else who wishes to submit a statement 

as well. Anyone wishing to do so have up to ten business days from 

today to send it in. I want to especially welcome our Administrator 

and our Senator-at-Large who is just joining us. 

Let me just say before we get into the testimony, I introduced 

the bill before us, H.R. 53, in an attempt to move the issue of a 

school for St. John forward. For many years now we’ve been bogged 

down, administration after administration, in working to find suitable land to exchange with the Park Service. And over the years 

both sides, the Park Service as well as the Virgin Islands Government, has acted in good faith in attempting to come up with an 

exchange of land without success. And I’m sure there are many 

people in the room who are glad that has been without success. 

In the meantime, more than 30 years have passed and the school 

age population in St. John has doubled. High school students continue to make the trip by ferry over to St. Thomas every day just 

to attend school. And I’m certain that all of us remember little 

Javone Alfred, a second grader on his way home from a Christmas 

party at Julius Sprauve School, who was struck and killed by a 

delivery truck while crossing the street, in full view of many other 

students who were also heading home. And this tragedy clearly 

demonstrates that the crowded town of Cruz Bay is not the place 

for an elementary school and the urgency to get the school out of 

downtown. 

Over the years, more and more of you have met me and expressed your strong opposition to the people of St. John and the 

Virgin Islands giving any more land to the National Park. After researching other options through the Congressional Research 

Service and committee staff, I introduced H.R. 53, which calls for 

a long-term lease instead of the exchange of land. And we all appreciate what the Park means to St. John and the territory. 

But I still know that many of you still believe that owning more 

than two-thirds of the land of the island of St. John is enough land 

for the National Park, and would like to see the Park outright donate the land needed to build the school as a gesture of good will 

to the people of St. John. 

While the Park Service does not have the legal authority to 

donate or lease land, we still have not ruled out the option of a conveyance completely. And this hearing today is the first step in 

deciding which is the best option and which is the most feasible 

option for us to pursue. But the most important thing is getting our 

children out of harm’s way in a supportive and nurturing educational environment as soon as possible. 

And in closing, I want again to thank everyone who is attending 

this evening. I want to recognize two Senators who are with us, 

Senator Hill, excuse me, and Senator Ottley. Thank you for the use 

of the Legislative Chamber. And also I want to recognize our 

former Judge Moore. This morning we were at the Federal Court 

in St. Thomas. 

At this time I would like to recognize for such opening statement 

as he may want to make, Congressman Rau ́l Grijalva. 

3

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE RAU ́ L M. GRIJALVA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you hear me? 

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will just lean closer. 

Good evening, and let me begin by once again thanking Congresswoman Christensen for hosting these hearings here in her district. The U.S. Virgin Islands are truly a special place, and it’s been 

an honor to be able to visit this beautiful place with my distinguished colleagues, and other colleagues that joined us earlier in 

the day. As I mentioned at our hearing this morning in St. 

Thomas, Chairwoman Christensen is the leader on the National 

Resources Committee. She is active on a variety of issues, education, health care, homeland security, and just to let her constituents know that you are well represented by a strong advocate and 

with a great deal of intelligence and discipline in Congress. And 

you should be pleased by her representation. 

As Chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands 

Subcommittee, I am particularly pleased to have had the opportunity to visit St. John and the Virgin Islands National Park. This 

Park includes some of the most beautiful special places and scenery 

in the entire National Park System. But what’s also significant is 

the historic and cultural resources that are being preserved. 

The topic today is the need for school facilities on St. John. On 

the Education and Labor Committee we’ve had a variety of hearings as we’ve gone through the process of reauthorizing No Child 

Left Behind. And one of—with the intent of reauthorizing No Child 

Left Behind and with a mission behind No Child Left Behind, was 

to close out achievement gap and make sure that every child had 

the opportunity equal to anybody else’s opportunity. And one of—

besides all the other complicated issues we need to go through, one 

of our hearings I recall posing a question to a school superintendent, and I asked him, the issue of school facilities, how important is that to achievement, to the well-being, the quality of 

education, the safety, the security of children and students. And 

they said, well, that is sometimes not factored into the issue of 

achievement and is a critical part of the issue of achievement. 

So, I’m looking forward to the witnesses today. I think it is imperative that the students here on St. John have the opportunity 

to have education on their island and it’s critical. The Federal government, National Park Service, and the Government of the Virgin 

Islands must work together to address this very, very critical issue. 

It is a pressing need on behalf of the students of St. John. 

So, I look forward again to hearing from our witnesses this 

evening regarding the best solution for this problem, and the next 

steps we can take to move toward a solution. I appreciate the time 

and the effort of our witnesses and thank them for joining us this 

evening. And with that, Madam Chairwoman, thank you and I 

yield back. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva. I will allow some of 

the people joining us to take some seats. And when we run out of 

seats we will start to use some of these up here. But at this time 

I would like to recognize the witness for our first panel. And as is 

customary, we begin with the representative from the Federal government. 

So our first panel will be Ms. Martha Bogle, the Acting Superintendent of the Virgin Islands National Park. And if you will join 

us here, I will recognize you for five minutes to give testimony. We 

4

have a little light here to help guide you on that, and welcome to 

the hearing.

STATEMENT OF MARTHA BOGLE, ACTING SUPERINTENDENT 

OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK 

Ms. BOGLE. Thank you, Ms. Chairwoman. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before your subcommittee at this field hearing 

on H.R. 53, a bill to authorize the Secretary of Interior to enter 

into a long-term lease with the Government of the United States 

Virgin Islands to provide land for the establishment of a school. Because we don’t typically provide positions on bills at field hearings, 

I will limit my comments to the history of this proposal and information concerning the National Park Service’s existing administrative authorities to exchange or lease land within the park. We plan 

to follow up with a letter providing our position on the bill at a 

later date. 

As you know, Virgin Islands National Park was authorized by 

Congress in 1956 and established largely by an initial land donation from Laurance Rockefeller through the Jackson Hole Preserve, 

Incorporated. Congress enlarged the park in 1962 and additionally 

in 1978 when they added Hassel Island in St. Thomas Harbor to 

the park. 

H.R. 53 would authorize the Secretary to lease to the Government of the United States Virgin Islands real property, including 

any improvements, for the purposes of constructing a school complex to serve grades K through 12. The piece of property that has 

been tentatively identified for lease is a 10-acre plot that is part 

of Estate Catherineberg, a historic sugar plantation located near 

the center of the island, close to Centerline Road. The property in 

question was not part of the Rockefeller donation, and is not encumbered by the reversionary clause that restricts the use of the 

Rockefeller properties to national park purposes. Though no formal 

survey has been done, the property is believed to contain fewer historic resources than other parts of the Estate. The property is near 

a road and other developments. 

During the past 14 years, the Government of the United States 

Virgin Islands and Virgin Islands National Park have discussed 

many proposals that would allow the Government of the Virgin 

Islands to construct a school on land currently owned by the National Park Service. These proposals have included an administrative land exchange. Though the Secretary of the Interior does have 

the authority to make minor boundary revisions of a unit of the 

National Park Service through a land exchange, the Land and 

Water Conservation Act stipulates several conditions that must be 

met before the land is exchanged and the boundary is revised. 

The land gained in the exchange must be ‘‘necessary for the 

proper preservation, protection, interpretation, or management of 

an area of the national park system.’’ Second, the total value of the 

land exchanged must be less than $750,000. Though no formal determination has been made, a land exchange involving the 

Catherineberg Estate property does not appear to meet either of 

these criteria. The exchange does not appear necessary for the protection of the park, and it appears that the Estate land alone is 

likely to be worth more than $750,000. 

5

During the 109th Congress, Delegate Christensen introduced 

H.R. 272 to legislatively authorize a land exchange. The Department of Interior did not take a position on H.R. 272. 

The Secretary does not have any other authority to allow the 

construction of a school on property owned and managed by the 

National Park Service. The 1998 National Parks Omnibus Act does 

give the Secretary the authority to lease buildings and associated 

property as long as the lease does not ‘‘result in degradation of the 

purposes and values of the unit.’’ While public education is not in 

conflict with the purpose of the Virgin Islands National Park, the 

construction of a complex of buildings appears to be in conflict with 

the direction given by the park’s authorizing legislation. 

The National Historic Preservation Act gives the Secretary the 

authority to lease historic property, including historic buildings and 

historic lands, but only if the lease will adequately insure the preservation of historic property. New construction of an education 

complex would not insure that the historic character of the land in 

question is preserved. 

Finally, the Land and Water Conservation Act authorizes the 

Secretary of the Interior to convey to a freehold or leasehold interest in lands within the national park system, but this authority 

does not apply to property within national parks. 

That concludes my prepared remarks and I would be pleased to 

answer any questions that you or other members of the Subcommittee may have. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Bogle follows:]

Statement of Martha Bogle, Acting Superintendent, Virgin Islands National 

Park, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior 

Ms. Chairwoman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before your subcommittee at this field hearing on H.R. 53, a bill to authorize the Secretary of the 

Interior to enter into a long-term lease with the Government of the United States 

Virgin Islands to provide land for the establishment of a school. Because we do not 

typically provide positions on bills at field hearings, I will limit my comments to the 

history of this proposal and information concerning the National Park Service’s existing administrative authorities to exchange or lease land within the park. We plan 

to send a followup letter providing our position on this bill. 

Virgin Islands National Park (park) was authorized by Congress in 1956 and established largely by an initial land donation from Laurance Rockefeller through the 

Jackson Hole Preserve, Incorporated. Congress enlarged the park in 1962 by adding 

5,650 acres of submerged lands along the north and south coasts of St. John. In 

1978, Congress added approximately 135 acres at Hassel Island in St. Thomas Harbor to the park. The park protects Caribbean forests, coral gardens, beaches, and 

historic ruins and currently owns 12,917 acres of land and water within its 14,689-

acre boundary. 

H.R. 53 would authorize the Secretary to lease to the Government of the United 

States Virgin Islands real property, including any improvements, for the purposes 

of constructing a school complex to serve grades K through 12. The piece of property 

that has been tentatively identified for lease is a 10-acre plot that is part of Estate 

Catherineberg, a historic sugar plantation located near the center of the island, 

close to Centerline Road. The property in question was not part of the Rockefeller 

donation, and is not encumbered by the reversionary clause that restricts the use 

of the Rockefeller properties to national park purposes. Though no formal survey 

has been done, the property is believed to contain fewer historic resources than 

other parts of the Estate. The property is near a road and other developments. 

During the past 14 years, the Government of the United States Virgin Islands and 

Virgin Islands National Park have discussed many proposals that would allow the 

Government of the Virgin Islands to construct a school on land currently owned by 

the National Park Service. These proposals have included an administrative land 

exchange. Though the Secretary of the Interior does have the authority to make 

minor boundary revisions of a unit of the National Park System through a land exVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:44 Jan 17, 2008 Jkt 098700 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 L:\DOCS\36646.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY
6

change, the Land and Water Conservation Act stipulates several conditions that 

must be met before the land is exchanged and the boundary is revised. 

The land gained in the exchange must be ‘‘necessary for...the proper preservation, 

protection, interpretation, or management of an area of the national park system.’’ 

Second, the total value of the land exchanged—the combined value of both the land 

added and the land deleted from the unit—must be less than $750,000. Though no 

formal determination has been made, a land exchange involving the Catherineberg 

Estate property does not appear to meet either of these criteria. The exchange does 

not appear necessary for the protection of the park, and it appears that the Estate 

land alone is likely to be worth more than $750,000. 

During the 109th Congress, Delegate Christensen introduced H.R. 272 to legislatively authorize a land exchange. The Department of the Interior did not take a position on H.R. 272. 

The Secretary does not have any other authority to allow the construction of a 

school on property owned and managed by the National Park Service. The 1998 National Parks Omnibus Act does give the Secretary the authority to lease buildings 

and associated property (16 U.S.C. 1a-k), as long as the lease does not ‘‘result in 

degradation of the purposes and values of the unit’’. While public education is not 

in conflict with the purpose of Virgin Islands National Park, the construction of a 

complex of buildings appears to be in conflict with the direction given by the park’s 

authorizing legislation, which states, ‘‘The national park shall be administered and 

preserved by the Secretary of the Interior in its natural state...’’ (70 Stat. 940). 

The National Historic Preservation Act gives the Secretary the authority to lease 

historic property, including historic buildings and historic lands, but only if the 

lease ‘‘will adequately insure the preservation of the historic property’’ (16 U.S.C. 

470h-3). New construction of an education complex would not insure that the historic character of the land in question is preserved. 

Finally, the Land and Water Conservation Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to convey to a freehold or leasehold interest in lands within the national park 

system, but this authority does not apply to ‘‘property within national parks’’ (16 

U.S.C. 460l-22(a)). 

That concludes my prepared remarks. I would be pleased to answer any questions 

you or other members of the subcommittee may have.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Acting Superintendent Bogle. I 

will now recognize my colleague Congressman Grijalva for five 

minutes. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. I appreciate 

your testimony, and I appreciated the tour today. Thank you very 

much. 

Ms. BOGLE. It’s my pleasure. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Let me, you mentioned in your testimony a particular parcel in your written testimony. Let me ask you, how is 

that particular parcel currently managed? What is it used for? You 

mentioned a particular parcel in your testimony, in your written 

testimony. So my questions are, how is that parcel currently being 

managed? 

Ms. BOGLE. It’s a—I’m sorry, excuse me. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Two parts. How is it being managed? What is it 

used for? And are there any buildings or other facilities on that 

particular parcel? 

Ms. BOGLE. Currently that property is in a natural state. The 

only buildings would be ruins associated with the sugar plantation. 

The area that we’re talking about, the ten acre track, seems to 

have had less of the historic property on it than other parts of the 

larger track, and it’s managed in a natural state basically. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. And that is based on an inventory about the historical, cultural significance that is or isn’t on that particular——

Ms. BOGLE. We haven’t done a full inventory or a full survey of 

the lands to determine just how many artifacts, just how many historic structures are there. We haven’t done a full survey. 

7

Mr. GRIJALVA. OK, is it removed from the National Park itself? 

Ms. BOGLE. No, sir. It is part of national——

Mr. GRIJALVA. Geographically it is not——

Ms. BOGLE. No, it is not geographically removed. It is about the 

center of the island. That’s why we thought that it would potentially be a good place for a school when the park was discussing 

the possibility of a land exchange. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. And just finally, can you explain if there is a significance to the fact that the parcel that we’re talking about is not 

covered by a reversionary clause that covers other land in the park. 

Ms. BOGLE. The reversionary clause applies to the initial lands 

that were basically established in 1956 when the park was established. Laurance Rockefeller owned the land. And in that, he put 

a reversionary clause that said that at any time any of that land 

was used for anything but a park or for the public, basically a National Park, that it would revert back to the foundation. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. And so this parcel is covered or not covered by 

that clause? 

Ms. BOGLE. It is not covered by that clause. It was added at a 

later date. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you. I don’t have any more questions. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva. I just have a few 

questions. You said in your statement that for a transfer to be done 

administratively, the property shouldn’t have a value of not more 

than $750,000. Do you know what the value—is there an estimated 

value of the property that you’re talking about? 

Ms. BOGLE. We haven’t appraised it. I can tell you that that’s for 

a minor boundary adjustment. There are certainly adjustments to 

boundaries all the time within national parks, but those require 

legislative authority to adjust boundaries. For a minor boundary 

adjustment, it has to be $750,000 or less. 

We haven’t done an appraisal on this property. My guess with 

the acreage involved on St. John, my guess is it would appraise for 

over $750,000. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I think that’s a safe guess. Was any other 

parcel of land, as you review the history and the discussions that 

might have gone on between the Park Service and the Government 

of the Virgin Islands, are you aware of any other parcels of land 

that were a part of that discussion? 

Ms. BOGLE. No, I’m not. But hang on just one second, if you will, 

let me confer. My technical expert, can you come up for a moment? 

Is that OK, Madam Chair? 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Sure. 

Ms. BOGLE. He said that this piece of land was the only land that 

was looked at mainly because it was the center part of the island, 

relatively flat, would be fairly easy to develop, we thought, as well 

as the fact that we believe that the historic structures as part of 

the Catherineberg Estate, are not on the ten acres that were identified. So the archeological work would not be as stringent. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Can you go ahead and state your name and 

position for the record? 

Mr. BOULON. My name is Ralph Boulon, Jr. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. My next question would be, also in your 

review of the discussions between the Park Service and the 

8

Government of the Virgin Islands, did the Government of the 

Virgin Islands indicate that they accepted this as a parcel of land 

that would be suitable for the school? 

Ms. BOGLE. In my review of the files, it appeared that the Government of the Virgin Islands seemed to be willing to talk about 

that again for the same reasons that I expressed before. The concern with the exchange was again trying to find equal value of land 

for that. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. My last question, as you’ve stated in your 

testimony, the Park Service generally doesn’t take a position on 

field hearings. But in your opinion, is there anything about 

H.R. 53 that goes against established Park Service policy that 

would likely lead the department and the service to oppose 

H.R. 53? Is there anything about policy as you read the bill that 

would likely lead to opposition? 

Ms. BOGLE. There is no doubt that there is a dire need for a 

school on St. John. The only thing that I would see is that this 

would very possibly set a precedent for things of this sort happening, leases happening in the future elsewhere. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Is there no precedent for a long-term lease of 

park property anywhere in the parks? 

Ms. BOGLE. Not anywhere. There are historic leases which would 

be to maintain historic structures so that the Park Service benefits, 

and the public benefits, because the historic structures are maintained in the historic fashion. There are agricultural leases. And 

for that, say for example, in the Blue Ridge Parkway, we lease out 

land to keep for—we lease out land for hay fields, instead of us 

mowing them to keep the rural nature of the fields, people mow 

them for us. So, basically it is for the good of the public and the 

good of the National Park Service, but there is really not a precedent for a lease such as this. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Well, wouldn’t you consider this for the good 

of the public, the school? 

Ms. BOGLE. The school is very good for the public, I agree. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. 

Mr. Grijalva, did you have any other questions? 

Mr. GRIJALVA. No, I don’t, thank you. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Well, thank you, Acting Superintendent 

Bogle. You’re excused, and I will call up the next panel. 

Ms. BOGLE. Thank you. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. OK, I would like to recognize the second 

panel of witnesses and ask them to come up to the podium: The 

Honorable Leona Smith, the St. John Administrator; The Honorable Lisa Forde, the St. Thomas/St. John Superintendent of 

Schools; and The Honorable Carmen Miranda Wesselhoft, Senatorat-Large of the 28th Legislature. 

The Chair now recognizes Administrator Smith to testify for five 

minutes.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE LEONA SMITH, ST. JOHN 

ADMINISTRATOR, GOVERNMENT OF THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 

Ms. SMITH. Good evening, Honorable Donna Christensen, and 

members of the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs. Thank you 

for the opportunity to appear before you in this setting to convey 

9

the views of the DeJongh-Francis administration as it regards 

H.R. 53. By the way of introduction, I am Leona Smith, a resident 

of St. John, and the appointed Administrator of this island. 

The Delegate’s bill, H.R. 53, authorizes the Interior Secretary to 

enter into a long-term lease with the Virgin Islands Government to 

provide land on this island for the establishment of a school. As I 

am sure you will hear or have heard from other witnesses who will 

testify at tonight’s hearing, the DeJongh-Francis administration 

wholly supports the legislation as a long-term lease would represent the less challenging option in securing the land that is necessary for the construction of a school on St. John. The administration looks forward to passage of the bill and subsequent negotiations toward identifying the most suitable location for the school’s 

development. I cannot emphasize enough the need for the process 

to get underway in earnest that will lead to the construction of a 

new school on St. John. 

The residents of this island have for years commuted very early 

in the morning and very late at night to and from our neighboring 

island of St. Thomas to facilitate their children’s attendance of high 

school, whether at private, parochial or at public institutions of 

learning. The construction of a new school would end this daily 

commute, one that is often challenged by inclement weather, rough 

seas and transportation snafus, for the many families who have 

made St. John their home. 

I will defer to the Acting Superintendent of Schools for the St. 

Thomas-St. John district, Lisa Hassell-Forde, to provide the panel 

with more details on the need to establish a school on St. John. 

I thank the Delegate and members of the House Subcommittee 

on Insular Affairs for the opportunity to convey the administration’s position in full support of a long-term lease with the Virgin 

Islands National Park on St. John for the development of a school 

which will better serve the residents of this island. 

And Madam Chair, I will have Ms. Lisa Forde continue. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Smith follows:]

Statement of The Honorable Leona Smith, St. John Administrator, 

Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands 

Honorable Donna Christensen and members of the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you in this setting to convey the views of the De Jongh-Francis administration as regards H.R. 53. By way 

of introduction, I am Leona Smith, a resident of St. John and the appointed Administrator of this island. 

The Delegate’s bill, H.R. 53, authorizes the Interior Secretary to enter into a longterm lease with the Virgin Islands Government to provide land on this island for 

the establishment of a school. As I am sure you will hear or have heard from other 

witnesses who will testify at tonight’s hearing the DeJongh-Francis administration 

wholly supports the securing of the land that is necessary for the construction of 

a school on St. John. The administration looks forward to passage of the bill and 

the subsequent negotiations towards identifying the most suitable location for the 

school’s development. I cannot emphasize enough the need for the process to get underway in earnest that will lead to the construction of a new school on St. John. 

The residents of this island have for years commuted very early in the morning 

and very late at night to and form our neighboring island of St. Thomas to facilitate 

their children’s attendance of high school whether at private, parochial or at public 

institutions of learning. The construction of a new school would end this daily commute, one that is often challenged by inclement whether, rough seas and transportation snafus, for many families who have made St. John their home. 

I will defer to the Acting Superintendent of schools for the St. Thomas-St. John 

district, Lisa Hassell-Forde to provide the panel with more details on the need to 

10

establish a school on St. John. I thank Delegate and members of the House Subcommittee on the Insular Affairs for the opportunity to convey the administration’s 

position in full support of a long-term lease with V.I. National Park on St. John for 

the development of a school which will better serve the residents of this island.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Ms. Forde, we now recognize you.

STATEMENT OF LISA FORDE, ST. THOMAS/

ST. JOHN SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 

Mrs. FORDE. Good evening, Delegate Christensen, Committee 

Member Grijalva, and audience. My name is Lisa Forde. I’m the 

Insular Superintendent for the St. Thomas/St. John district. 

I’m here this evening to testify on the proposed land lease upon 

review of the proposed bill to authorize the Secretary of the 

Interior to enter into a long-term lease with the Government of the 

Virgin Islands and the island of St. John, with the ultimate end 

being a lease of land for the establishment of a school. The Office 

of the Insular Superintendent has attempted to research the possibilities and probabilities associated with this bill and the benefits 

which can be reaped from such a long-term lease. 

It is the opinion of the Office of the Insular Superintendent that 

clearly a school educational facility is needed that takes care of the 

needs of all of the students in the St. John district. 

Currently, there are two public school facilities, the Julius E. 

Sprauve School, which houses K-9 students, and the Guy Benjamin 

Elementary School which houses K-6. 

Because of the vast land spread on the island, these two public 

facilities currently educate 304 students, 240 in Cruz Bay and 64 

in the Coral Bay area. The students in Cruz Bay receive services 

in regular education, gifted and talented, special education, school 

to work and career and technical education. In Coral Bay, students 

receive services in regular education. And all students at both sites 

are identified as individuals with varied needs and achievement 

goals. 

Students requiring a senior high education must be transported 

to St. Thomas to receive their education, as there are currently no 

public educational facilities on St. John for grades 10-12. This 

clearly places students at a disadvantage as they are forced to travel inter-island twice daily to receive a free and quality public education. 

A school facility to provide full services to all K-12 students on 

the island of St. John is definitely needed. Students must be able 

to avail themselves to special education, vocational education, 

music education, scholarship consideration, JROTC participation, 

participation in sports, membership in competitive and travel 

clubs, as well as intervention strategies to which they have no access while they are on St. John. 

The St. Thomas/St. John Office of the Insular Superintendent is 

willing to partner with any entity and/or organization that has the 

best interest of our public education students in mind. My office 

looks forward to making the necessary moves to ensure that all 

students in the St. Thomas/St. John district receive quality educational experiences that prepare them to be life-long learners and 

productive citizens within out global society. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mrs. Forde follows:]

11

Statement of Lisa A. Hassell-Forde, Government of the United States Virgin 

Islands, Department of Education, Office of the Insular Superintendent, 

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 

Upon review of the proposed bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enter 

into a long-term lease with the Government of the Virgin Islands on the island of 

St. John, with the ultimate end being a lease of land for the establishment of a 

school, the Office of the Insular Superintendent has attempted to research the possibilities and probabilities associated with this bill and the benefits which can be 

reaped from such a long-term lease. 

It is the opinion of the Office of the Insular Superintendent that clearly a school/

educational facility is needed that takes care of the needs of all of the students in 

the St. John District. Currently, there are two public school facilities, the Julius E. 

Sprauve School, which houses K-9 students and the Guy Benjamin Elementary 

School which houses K-6 students. Because of the vast land spread on the island, 

these two public facilities currently educate 300 students, 240 in Cruz Bay and 64 

in the Coral Bay area. The students in Cruz Bay receive services in Regular Education, Gifted and Talented, Special Education, School to Work and the Career and 

Technical Education. In Coral Bay, students receive services in regular education 

and all students at both sites are identified as individuals with varied needs and 

achievement goals. 

Students requiring a senior high education must be transported to St. Thomas to 

receive their education as there are currently no public educational facilities on St. 

John for grades 10-12. This clearly places students at a disadvantage as they are 

forced to travel inter-island twice daily to receive a free and quality public education. A school facility to provide full services to all K-12 students on the island 

of St. John is definitely needed. Students must be able to avail themselves of Special 

Education, Vocational Education, Music Education, Scholarship consideration, 

JROTC participation, participation in sports, membership in competitive and travel 

clubs, as well as intervention strategies to which they have no access while they are 

on St. John. 

The St. Thomas-St. John Office of the Insular Superintendent is willing to partner 

with any entity and/or organization that has the best interests of our public education students in mind. My office looks forward to making the necessary moves to 

ensure that all students in the St. Thomas-St. John District receive quality educational experiences that prepare them to be life-long learners and productive citizens within our global society.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. The Chair now recognizes the 

Senator-at-Large, The Honorable Carmen Wesselhoft.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CARMEN MIRANDA 

WESSELHOFT, SENATOR-AT-LARGE, 28TH LEGISLATURE OF 

THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. Thank you, and good evening Delegate 

Christensen, members of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, staff 

and all concerned St. Johnians gathered here for this important 

hearing. I am Carmen Wesselhoft, the Senator-at-Large, and I am 

a proud native-born St. Johnian, but I’m especially concerned about 

St. John issues and the pressing need for a new school. 

I am very pleased that we are going forward on this issue today 

or tonight, and we truly must all work together to see the construction of this new school through. Thanks to Delegate Christensen’s 

Office and all those involved in organizing this meeting. 

The need to relocate Julius Sprauve School is clear to all of us, 

as is the need for a high school here on St. John. The school was 

once conveniently located at the center of town, but now that the 

town of Cruz Bay has grown exponentially, it is no longer an optimal location for students. It is noisy, there is no room for expansion, little parking and there are danger zones all around the campus. 

12

Just this March a truck lost its brakes and rammed a car into 

the school’s crosswalk, ending up hanging over the school’s ball 

field. There is a great deal of traffic surrounding the school on all 

sides. We have heavy drinking taking place just across the street 

from morning until night. It is not an environment that is especially conducive to learning. 

I would like to see a new school include both a high school and 

some kind of vocational training program. We do have a high 

school on St. John, but it is a private school and tuition is out of 

reach for most residents. Students drop out every year, I believe 

partly because of the frustration of traveling to St. Thomas each 

day for their classes. Good students are motivated to make the trip, 

but it doesn’t take much to discourage those young people already 

at-risk. 

Construction of a new school would allow the Virgin Islands Government to reassign the property at Sprauve School for other purposes. 

Our need for a fire station is well known as is the lack of youth 

and senior centers. We are also in need of a centrally located government complex. Land on St. John is certainly at a premium and 

I will push for the campus to continue to be used for the greater 

public good. I wholeheartedly support the good intentions behind 

H.R. 53. One question I ask, though, why can’t this land be given 

outright to the people of St. John? 

Construction of a new school has been stymied by the lack of 

available and affordable land on St. John, but so has construction 

of affordable housing, a nursing home, a fire station and recreational facilities for our young people. The skyrocketing cost of 

property on St. John, this has put home ownership out of reach of 

many, if not most, St. Johnians. 

Some change is inevitable and there is certainly a new culture 

being developed here on St. John, but it is time we took some significant steps toward making homeownership more feasible. The 

most significant step we could take and the only real remedy at 

this point is for the Virgin Islands National Park to transfer some 

land back to the people of this Territory. 

I love the park. It has been a tremendous blessing in terms of 

keeping our island serene and beautiful. I cannot imagine St. John 

without the park and the significant land it protects. It has been 

a tremendous tourist attraction and has created many jobs and 

opportunities for Virgin Islanders. St. John is the gem of the 

Caribbean largely because of the National Park. 

But when Rockefeller created what is known as the National 

Park, he said that it was never to bring hardship to the people of 

St. John. Well, today it has created a hardship in terms of lack of 

land for a school, for a new basketball court, for a fire station, for 

a senior center, for housing, for homeownership, and for local families. The National Park owns two-thirds of St. John or approximately 9,000 acres. If even just 200 of these acres, if even just 200 

of these acres were returned to the people of St. John, we could 

greatly relieve this hardship for decades to come. 

Just a couple hundred acres out of 9,000 could make all the difference in the world to young St. Johnians and those older St. 

Johnians who would like to return home but cannot. I am confident 

13

we could do this without jeopardizing the beauty or ecology of the 

Virgin Islands National Park. 

If we do not take steps to make land available for infrastructural 

improvements and homeownership now and work toward building 

and stabilizing a shrinking middle class, I truly fear for the future 

of St. John. We must make our voices heard in Washington. If we 

all unite, I am confident we can find creative ways to resolve the 

lack of developable land without further disenfranchising St. 

Johnians. 

I truly hope that you will take my words under consideration. I 

know that untold numbers share my sentiments and I hope we can 

move forward in giving back a small portion of land to St. 

Johnians. 

I ask for the Committee members’ support for any efforts to assist in the construction of a new school on St. John, and I stand 

ready to offer any local legislation that may be necessary to facilitate this process. I thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Wesselhoft follows:]

Statement of Carmen Wesselhoft, Virgin Islands Senator-At-Large 

Good Evening to Delegate Christensen, the members of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, staff and all the concerned St. Johnians gathered here for this important hearing. 

My name is Carmen Wesselhoft and I am the Virgin Islands Senator-At-Large. 

This is my first term in office and I was sworn in on January 8 of this year. Although I represent constituents throughout the Territory, I am a proud native born 

St. Johnian and I am especially concerned about St. John issues and the pressing 

need for a new school. 

I am very pleased that we are going forward on this issue today as we truly must 

all work together to see the construction of this new school through. Thanks to Delegate Christensen’s Office and all those involved in organizing this meeting. 

The need to relocate Julius Sprauve School is clear to all of us. As is the need 

for a high school here on St. John. The school was once conveniently located at the 

center of town, but now that the town of Cruz Bay has grown exponentially it is 

no longer an optimal location for students. It is noisy, there is no room for expansion, little parking and there are danger zones all around campus. Just this March 

a truck lost it breaks and rammed a car into the school’s crosswalk, ending up hanging over the school’s ballfield. There is a great deal of traffic surrounding the school 

on all sides. We have heavy drinking taking place just across the street from morning until night. It is not an environment that is especially conducive to learning. 

I would like to see a new school include both a high school and some kind of vocational training program. We do have a high school on St. John, but it is a private 

school and tuition is out of the reach for most residents. Students drop out every 

year partly because of the frustration of traveling to St. Thomas each day for their 

classes. Good students are motivated to make the trip, but it doesn’t take much to 

discourage those young people already at risk. 

Construction of a new school would allow the Virgin Islands Government to reassign the property at Sprauve School for other purposes. Our need for a fire station 

is well known, as is the lack of youth and senior centers. We are also in needed 

of a centrally located Government complex. Land on St. John is certainly at a premium and I will push for the campus to continue to be used for the greater public 

good. 

I wholeheartedly support the good intentions behind H.R. 53, but I do have some 

concerns. 

The information I was provided with did not provide specific information as to the 

plot size and location of the land in question and I am hoping this will be addressed 

in the course of this hearing. 

The question that many St. Johnians are asking is whether or not there is some 

legal reason why we must lease this land from the Federal Government? Why can’t 

this land be given outright to the people of the St. John? What purpose does a 90 

year lease serve? 

Construction of a new school has been stymied by the lack of available and affordable land on St. John, but so has construction of affordable housing, a nursing 

14

home, a fire station and recreational facilities for our young people. The skyrocketing cost of property on St. John and this has put home ownership out of the 

reach of many, if not most, young St. Johnians. 

No matter how flexible the terms or low the interest rate may be, no one making $33,000 a year—and that is about what the average Virgin Islander earns—can afford a mortgage on a million dollar home. Prices do go up and property values will 

increase, but local salaries have not risen to match the rise in prices of homes and 

land on St. John. Prices have primarily been driven up by outside investors who 

have made their money elsewhere. There is a growing gap between the haves and 

the have nots here on St. John and, at this point, the Federal Government is the 

only entity with the power and the land to ameliorate some of these concerns. 

We as a community have attempted to respond by creating affordable housing opportunities at Bellevue and soon at Calabash Boom. This is not enough. And I do 

not think our people should be relegated to solely living in ‘‘affordable housing communities’’. They should have the opportunity to purchase land at a reasonable price 

and to build a home of their own preference and style. 

There are those newcomers among us who have been heard to say that if St. 

Johnians cannot afford to live on St. John, they should move to St. Croix or St. 

Thomas. This is insulting and unacceptable. Our families are being broken apart. 

Our culture and our traditions lost. 

Some change is inevitable and there is certainly a new ‘‘culture’’ being developed 

here on St. John, but it is time we took some significant steps towards making 

homeownership more feasible. The most significant step we could take and, the only 

real remedy at this point, is for the Virgin Islands National Park to transfer some 

land back to the people of this Territory. 

I love the park, it has been a tremendous blessing in terms of keeping our island 

serene and beautiful. I cannot imagine St. John without the park and the significant 

land it protects. It has been a tremendous tourist attraction and has created many 

jobs and opportunities for Virgin Islanders. St. John is the gem of the Caribbean, 

largely because of the National Park. 

But there is always a flipside. All those people coming from outside that fell in 

love with the beauty of the park have driven up real estate prices. All the land held 

by the park has made little available for growth. All those tourists have altered our 

way and quality of life. 

When Rockefeller created what is now known as the Virgin Islands National Park 

he said that it was never to create a hardship for the people of St. John. Well today 

it has created a hardship in terms of lack of land for a school, for a new basketball 

court, for a fire station, for a senior center, for housing and for homeownership for 

local families. 

The National Park owns 2/3s of St. John or approximately 9,000 acres. If even 

just two hundred of these acres were returned to the people of St. John, we could 

greatly relieve this hardship for decades to come. 

I know that some may find this idea controversial, but what is the alternative? 

I propose that this Committee undertake a feasibility study in this regard. The park 

is bringing in hundreds of thousands of visitors, yet there is not adequate land 

available to host the services and employees needed to serve these guests. A detailed plan would have to be crafted whereby established families would have first 

opportunity to purchase this land and be required to hold on to it for a specified 

number of years. It wouldn’t be easy, but it can be done. 

When the National Park was created, Virgin Islanders did not have a strong voice 

in national affairs and there was certainly a different standard in terms of racial 

relations and politics back in 1956. Things have changed in the world, things have 

changed on St. John and it is time that we demand that changes are made to better 

accommodate our people. 

Just a couple of hundred acres out of over 9,000 could make all the difference in 

the world to young St. Johnians and those older St. Johnians who would like to return home, but cannot. I am confident we could do this without jeopardizing the 

beauty or ecology of the Virgin Islands National Park. 

If we do not take steps to make land available for infrastructural improvements 

and homeownership now and work towards building and stabilizing our shrinking 

middle class, I truly fear for the future of St. John. No one is immune from the social and economic crisis being created here. 

We must make our voices heard in Washington. If we all unite I am confident 

we can find creative ways to resolve the lack of developable land, without further 

disenfranchising St. Johnians. 

I truly hope that you will take my words under consideration. I know that untold 

numbers share my sentiments and I hope we can move forward in giving back a 

small portion of land to St. Johnians. 

15

I ask that Committee members support any efforts to assist in the construction 

of a new school on St. John and I stand ready to offer any local legislation that 

many be necessary to facilitate this process. 

Thank you.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Senator. And the applauds were 

restrained at least two points in your testimony and I know what 

you said definitely reflects the sentiment of many in the audience. 

I will now recognize Mr. Grijalva for such questions as he may 

have. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you, Madam Chair. If I may, Madam Senator, a couple of questions just for my background. The trip that 

students must take to St. Thomas for high school, how long is that? 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. Well, if you take into consideration, sir, you 

have some students that live on the eastern end of the island, they 

must get up probably about 4:30 in the morning to catch the school 

bus, take the 6:00 o’clock ferry to Red Hood. The ferry ride is about 

20 minutes. Most of them attend school on the eastern end of St. 

Thomas. So, it could take anywhere just in travel an hour, two 

hours just to get across the ocean one-way. And then travel back 

late in the evening to get back. You have homework. You have 

other things to do at home. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you. And you mentioned in your testimony 

tuition to private school. How high is that tuition? 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. We have a private school on St. John, and the 

tuition, if you don’t get a scholarship, could range anywhere from 

$350 and even higher, $550, and even higher. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Per month. 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. Per month. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. I would assume that price takes a lot of people out 

of that opportunity. 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. Definitely. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. If a suitable parcel was to be leased, direct transfer, whatever, as that process moves along, do you know what the 

estimated cost, Senator, is for the construction of those facilities 

and the funding available if it is available? 

Ms. SMITH. Probably over $3 million to construct a school. 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. It’s probably more than $3 million and up. Because I don’t know if you realize but St. John, the cost of living is 

very high. To build on St. John is very, very costly. So it could 

range anywhere, I believe, double $3 million and up. Anywhere 

from $10 million and up it could cost. 

Mrs. FORDE. Those are conservative estimates considering that if 

we were to build a facility on St. John, we wouldn’t want a half 

done facility. We want to make sure that it had an auditorium that 

could take care of public use, as well as school use. You would want 

a gymnasium facility so that the children have all sports advantages that other schools have been afforded in other islands in the 

territory. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. You would want a comprehensive high school. 

Mrs. FORDE. Yes. And not just a high school. Recognize that 

we’re talking a K-12 education. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you. And if I may, Superintendent, you 

mentioned in your testimony, and I appreciate that comment, keeping the public education students in mind as we go through this 

16

process, and you mentioned a partnership with entities that sub. 

Elaborate how you see that partnership, and Administrator Smith 

as well. 

Mrs. FORDE. I think it’s important for us to understand that education cannot exist on its own. We know that for education to be 

successful, we have to partner with the Legislature. We have to 

partner with private entities, businesses. There are corporations. 

There are community groups. If we are to be successful, we have 

to pull all entities in. And we’re willing to do that. We don’t intend 

to be an insular education. We intend to make use of all partners 

who are willing to provide service, goods, expertise, so that we can 

build quality education in the Virgin Islands again. 

Ms. SMITH. I concur with Ms. Forde. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you. Madam Chair, I don’t have any further questions. Thank you. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva. I would like to get 

a couple of things on the record. Administrator Smith, thank you 

for your support of the bill and the intention on the lease. Would 

you know if the administration supports the position, and Senator 

Wesselhoft, have you had that discussion with them that a reference to a lease, they would prefer a conveyance or an outright 

conveyance of land? 

Ms. SMITH. I really don’t have that knowledge at this moment. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. OK. And this is not the end of the discussion. 

So we can follow-up with you and the administration on that issue. 

Ms. Forde, in your testimony you talked about the number of 

students attending school on St. John, and in other testimony the 

estimates have been 700 students traveling to 1,000 students traveling from St. John to attend school in St. Thomas. Do you have 

a number on the number of students that leave St. John every day? 

Mrs. FORDE. No, but recognize that these are the students that 

attend school in St. John. We know that to attend Eudora Kean 

High School between eleventh and twelfth grade we’ve got conservatively 60 to 70 students traveling daily. We also have students 

from the St. John community that attend private schools in St. 

Thomas, and that number I don’t have available. 

But we do know that it’s enough that if you attend school in the 

St. John district, if you live in the St. John district, you should be 

able to attend school in the St. John district comfortably. And if 

you make the choice to attend school in St. Thomas, that’s a choice. 

It shouldn’t be that it has to be a travel for these children every 

day. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I totally agree with you on that, the need for 

a school, period. But just for the record, I wanted to know if we 

had an accurate number of the students that travel. But certainly 

it does present a hardship as described by the Senator, getting up 

that early in the morning and having to travel across the island 

and then the ferry and so forth and so on. It’s difficult enough just 

as if they were attending school here. 

The other question I would have for you, Ms. Forde, is the 10 

acres suitable, in your estimation and the estimation of the department, do you have any idea what the acreage is of the larger school 

that we have in the St. Thomas/St. John district? 

17

Mrs. FORDE. No, I don’t have that information. Ten acres would 

be conservative in my guess. If we’re going to put a full service facility, 10 acres is conservative. If you’re going to put something 

here, you’re going to want a state-of-the-art gymnasium; you’re 

going to want a track and field that the children can run on, that 

they can practice on and prepare for competitive meets stateside; 

you’re going to want classrooms where we can put comfortably 30 

children in a classroom and they are not hitting elbows against 

each other; that we’ve got computer drops in the classrooms for 

these children; that there are cafeterias where the children can eat 

and we don’t have to jam them into lunch hours. 

What we want is a vision for education. Ten acres can do it. We 

can make do with that, but certainly I think we would want to double that number if we wanted to put a full fledge facility in St. 

John. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. For example, Eudora Kean, do you have any 

idea what the acreage is? 

Mrs. FORDE. No, I have no idea. But we also recognize that with 

Eudora Kean, we’re sharing land with Housing, Parks, and Rec. 

So——

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Right, I understand that. 

And Senator Wesselhoft, are there any current measures in the 

27th Legislature addressing any school related issues on St. John? 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. Not that I know of, Delegate Christensen. And 

if I may, just for the record, just to clarify what you said, I’m not 

against the land lease. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I understand. 

Ms. WESSELHOFT. I’m hoping that one day that the National 

Park will recognize our needs and start giving us something as opposed to us having to enter into a lease. And even if we do a lease, 

it will be lease to own eventually. So, I’m in full support of it. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I understand. But for the record, because this 

is the official record of the Congress, we just want to make sure 

that we’re clear on all of the opinions that are being voiced here. 

And I’m clear that you support the lease, but that you also would 

support an outright conveyance. 

I don’t have any other questions. Do you have any other questions, Mr. Grijalva? Is there anything else that was left unasked 

that you would like to add before we dismiss you? 

Ms. SMITH. Madam Chair, I would like to see this come to fruition. We’ve been speaking about the school situation for the last 

30 years. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Yes. 

Ms. SMITH. So, we would really like to see it come to fruition. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I think that’s the bottom line and as quickly 

as possible. 

So, thank you for your testimony, and I would now like to call 

up the last panel which is a relatively large panel of witnesses. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. OK, the next panel consists of Ms. Lorelei 

Monsanto—as they are coming up, if there is room on the bench 

in which you’re sitting, if you would just move over a little it would 

allow our individuals who are still standing to have a place to sit. 

So, Ms. Monsanto, Mr. Ronnie Jones of Unity Day Group, Ms. 

Kristen Cox of the One Campus Group, Mr. Gaylord Sprauve, Mr. 

18

Joe Kessler, President of Friends of the Virgin Islands National 

Park, and former Senator-at-Large, Craig Barshinger. 

OK, thank you. We will begin this panel by recognizing Ms. Monsanto for five minutes. Ms. Monsanto of the One Campus Group.

STATEMENT OF LORELEI C. MONSANTO, ONE CAMPUS GROUP 

Ms. MONSANTO. Good evening, distinguished guests, Members of 

Congress and our Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen and 

other guests and the audience. I am Lorelei Monsanto, a St. John 

resident and member of One Campus Group. I would like to thank 

you in advance for the opportunity to give my presentation to the 

Committee on Natural Resources on H.R. 53, also known as the 

Virgin Islands National Park School Lease Act. 

St. John has no doubt been changed by the existence of the National Park Service. I do believe the various agencies that support 

the park and its growth will support this initiative to acquire lands 

to demonstrate a team effort to educate the local populous of students that reside on St. John. 

I would like to give a brief history. Number one, the overall population of students on St. John in both the private and public sector is approximately 700 students and growing with a rash of development on the island. 

Two, the current educational complexes on the island of St. John 

are crumpling, dark, located in congested areas and have outgrown 

their overall usefulness. 

Three, due to lack of land space on St. John and overall planning 

for the future, we are at a point where our partner, Jackson Hole 

Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Friends of the National 

Park, students, parents and all concerned groups on the island of 

St. John, have recognized that we must become team players in 

this venture. 

Four, the private sector has established a school on St. John that 

clearly states a need for K-12 on the island. Their location is quite 

hilly and provides some difficulties in expansion and diversification. 

However, we’re talking about the public school sector here. My 

group, the One Campus Group, have done several studies and investigations. One, we found that Laurance Rockefeller donated 

lands with a special stipulation that lands be held to enhance the 

local population on the island of St. John. Our Delegate to Congress was advised by a Mr. Clayton Frye, Jr. On November 10, 

2006 that Jackson Hole Preserve retains no property that might be 

suitable for such a purpose, and finds that they didn’t own any 

land on the island. Investigation reveals that they liquidated a 

good portion of that property and disregarded Mr. Rockefeller’s 

wishes. 

Two, discussion of swapping local Virgin Islands’ land and/or 

cays with the National Park Service in 2006 raised a high public 

outcry against such an action. 

Three, Ms. Ethel Bishop died March 2006. She conveyed a deed 

to the United States National Park in 1968. That parcel is known 

as No. 6 Estate Catherineberg, and it consists of 55 acres of land, 

more or less, and it is not subject to any reversionary clause. The 

National Park Service noted that this is just one of several land 

19

parcels managed by the National Park Service that has this condition. However, based on the location, this parcel seems to be the 

best location for the project that we are now considering, and we 

did send to you a copy of her death certificate and a deed of conveyance. 

Four, the opportunity will provide the most educational venture 

the National Park System, Virgin Islands and Congress has ever 

seen. St. John’s needs are truly unique, and this joint venture will 

enable the National Park Service and the Department of Education 

to construct a school complex that adds a Marine Biology, Botany, 

National Park Service Mid-island Visitor’s Center and Educational 

Complex, all under one environmental friendly environment. 

It is my belief that this request for a lease will enhance the overall position on the National Park Service and the Virgin Islands. 

With the goal of incorporation of National Park Service programs 

and the educational programs, the possibilities are limitless. An investigation on leasing National Park lands now exist in the Park 

system. 

Preservation of the Bishop home, educating the students with 

National Park Service programs, advising the visitors of how St. 

John and this co-adoption enhances the knowledge power of kids’ 

learning both inside and outside the classroom will be mindboggling. 

The bill, H.R. 53, is an excellent solution to the educational 

goals. I do have a few suggestions, however, that might enhance 

the bill. I would request the Secretary of Interior request that a 

volunteer school board be set up to work with the National Park 

Service on this plan. 

Also, I would like the school to be designed by a certified school 

design group with an environmentally friendly design so that we 

can co-exist with the National Park’s mandate and our own. I 

would clearly like to request the entire 55 acres of the Bishop land. 

And four, intent with the formation of the National Park Service, 

to be designated for such a purpose. 

In conclusion, I know that this bill will become a reality. We will 

forge ahead to make this a reality. We will lobby, we will call you, 

we will harass you, we will do whatever it takes to make this 

happen. Thank you again for hearing this testimony. Respectfully 

yours, Lorelei Monsanto. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Monsanto follows:]

Statement of Lorelei Monsanto, One Campus 

Good Evening distinguished Members of Congress and our Delegate to Congress 

Donna Christensen and other distinguished guests and audience. 

I am Lorelei Monsanto, a St. John resident and member of the One Campus 

group. I Would like to thank you in advance for the opportunity to give my presentation to the Committee on Natural Resources on H.R. 53, also known as the ‘‘Virgin Islands National Park School Lease Act’’. 

St. John has no doubt been changed by the existence of the National Park Service. 

I do believe the various agencies that support the park and its growth will support 

this Initiative to acquire lands to demonstrate a team effort to educate the local populous of students that reside on St. John. 

Brief History: 

1. The overall population of students on St. John in both the private and public 

sector is proximately seven hundred students and growing with the rash of 

development on the island. 

20

2. The current educational complexes on the island of St. John are crumpling, 

dark, located in congested areas and have out grown their overall usefulness. 

(see Photos) 

3. Due to lack of land space on St. John and overall planning for the future we 

are at a point where our partners, Jackson Hole Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Friends of the National Park, Students, Parents and all concerned 

groups on the island of St. John have recognized that we must become team 

players in this venture. 

4. Private sector has established a school on St. John that clearly states for a 

need for a K-12 on the island. Their location is quite hilly and provides some 

difficulties in expansion and diverication. 

Investigation: 

1. Laurance Rockefeller donated lands with a special stipulation that lands be 

held to enhance the local population on the island of St. John. Our Delegate 

to Congress was advised be a Mr. Clayton Frye Jr. on November 10, 2006 that 

Jackson Hole Preserve retains no properties that might be suitable for such a 

purpose, and find that we do not at this time own any land on the island. Investigation reveals lands were liquidated with an apparent disregard for Mr. 

Rockefeller’s wishes. (See attachment) 

2. Discussion of swapping local Virgin Island land and or cays with the National 

Park Service in 2006 raised a HUGE PUBLIC OUTCRY against such an action. 

3. Mrs. Ethel May Bishop died March 2006. She conveyed a deed to the United 

States National Park in 1968. That parcel, known at Number 6 Estate 

Catherineberg, consists of fifty-five (55) acres of land more or less and is not 

subject to any reversionary clause. The NPS noted that this is just one of several land parcels managed be the National Park Service that has this condition. However based on location this parcel seems to be the best location for 

the project we are now considering. (Death certificate and deed of conveyance 

attachment) 

4. This opportunity will provide to me the most educational venture in the NPS 

and Virgin Islands and Congress. St. John needs are truly unique and this 

joint venture will enable the National Park Service and the department of Education to construct a school complex that adds marine biology, botany, National 

Park Service Mid-island Visitor’s Center and educational complex all under one 

environmental friendly environment. 

Overview: 

It is my belief that this request for a lease will enhance the overall position on 

the National Park Service and The Virgin Islands. With the goal of incorporation 

NPS programs with the Educational programs the possibilities are limitless. And investigations on leasing NPS land now exist in the Park system. 

Preservation of the Bishop home, educating the student with NPS programs, advising the visitors to St. John how this co-adoption enhances the knowledge power 

of kids learning both inside and outside of the classroom 

The bill, H.R. 53, is an excellent solution to the educational goals. I have a few 

suggestions that might enhance the bill: 1. that the Secretary Interior request that 

a volunteer school board be set up to work along with the NPS on this plan. 2. Design of the school is done by a certified school design group with environmental 

friendly design. 3. Clear request of 55 acres of the land. 4. It was the intent with 

the formation of the NPS that an area be designated for such a purpose. 

In conclusion, I know that this bill will become a reality. We are ready to forge 

ahead to make this a reality. 

Thanking you again for having this hearing respectfully yours Lorelei Monsanto

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Ms. Monsanto. The Chair now 

recognizes Mr. Jones for five minutes.

STATEMENT OF RONNIE JONES, UNITY DAY GROUP 

Mr. JONES. Good evening. My name is Ronnie Jones. I am honored to be here today. Thank you, Congresswoman Donna 

Christensen, and all the Committee members and everyone else 

that’s here with us today listening. Again, I am honored to be a 

witness in regard to H.R. 53. 

21

I was born on the island of St. John and I’ve seen many changes 

take place. Most of these changes have been positive, mainly because they relate to population growth. 

I come from a very large family. My grandfather was Halvor 

Richards, born on April 15, 1896, on the island of St. John. He had 

18 children. My grandfather had brothers and sisters, but the most 

prominent was Julius E. Sprauve. 

Halvor was a foreman with the Civilian Conservation Corps in 

1938 on St. John. The CCC Program or Civilian Conservation 

Corps Program, employed many St. Johnians and helped to maintain the structure of the island, especially our roads. He eventually 

purchased Estate Susannaberg in 1945 and ended his time on this 

earth on St. John in 1970 as a successful farmer. 

Julius C. Sprauve was an advocate for the people of St. John. He 

was a Councilman and eventually the first Senator of St. John. 

Julius helped St. Johnians get their first bank, better roads and 

much needed employment opportunities in the 1930’s. Julius left 

the legacy of community service, but his most, far-reaching accomplishment was helping Laurance Rockefeller convince the Department of Interior that the National Park was a good thing for everyone involved. 

This collaboration happened before I was born, and the results 

are evident today as over 5,000 acres is still preserved for our 

future. The 3,000 acres that was left for the families and friends 

of Julius, and the friendly inhabitants encountered by Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Stit (phon.) has greatly diminished in the past 71 

years. 

Families have continued to grow and many visitors have decided 

to stay. I attended Julius C. Sprauve School 43 years ago, and 

today our island has outgrown it. 

The acquisition of the National Park in 1936 has reduced the 

exploitation of St. John. The families connected to that era are 

pleased, but the children of this era have little options in regard 

to land space. We need a secured and safe area for which conducive 

learning could be produced and provide opportunities for vocational 

and athletic programs. 

Julius C. Sprauve convinced the Department of Interior and the 

local people to present their lands for preservation in 1936. We, 

today in 2007, have our Delegate to Congress, Donna Christensen, 

and her constituents trying to convince the Department of Interior 

that to allow the Virgin Islands to lease land for a school would be 

in the best interest of the entire island and its inhabitants. 

In 1936, the people and the Department of Interior even after 

some opposition, did what was right for the future good of the 

Virgin Islands and the people that come here. 

We are asking the Department of Interior to consider the needs 

of our children, and just as in 1936, there will be opposition, but 

be aware that the people of St. John will be following this bill and 

with deep conviction of the right and wrong, Bill H.R. 53 works for 

our children. Thank you for your consideration. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Jones follows:]

22

Statement of Ronnie Jones, Unity Day Group 

I am honored to be a witness in regard to bill H.R.53. I was born on the Island 

of St. John and I have seen many changes take place. Most of these changes have 

been positive, mainly because they relate to population growth. I come from a very 

large family. My grandfather was Halvor Neptune Richards, born on April 15, 1896 

and he had 18 children. 

My grandfather had brothers and sisters but the most prominent was Julius E. 

Sprauve. Halvor was a foreman with the Civilian Conservation Corps. in 1938 on 

St. John. The C.C.C. program employed many St. Johnians and helped to maintain 

the structure of the Island especially our roads. He eventually purchased, Estate of 

Susannaberg in 1945 and ended his time on earth in 1978 as a successful farmer. 

Julius E. Sprauve was an advocate for the people of St. John. He was a Councilman and eventually the first Senator of St. John. Julius help St. Johnian’s get their 

first bank, better roads and much needed employment opportunities in the 1930’s. 

Julius E. Sprauve left a legacy of Community Service but his most far reaching accomplishment was helping Laurence Rockefeller and Frank Stick convince the Department of Interior that a National Park was a good thing for everyone evolved. 

This collaboration happened four years before I was born in 1936, and the results 

are evident today as over 5000 acres is still preserved for our future. The 3000 acres 

that was left for the family and friends of Julius, and the friendly inhabitants in 

countered by Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Stick, has greatly diminished in the past 71 

years. (1936-2007 Families have continued to grow and many visitors have decided 

to stay. I attended Julius E. Sprauve School 48 years ago and today our island has 

out grown it. 

The acquisition of the National Park in 1936 has reduced the exploitation of St. 

John. The families connected to that era are pleased, but the children of this era 

have little options in regards to land space. We need to secure a safe area of which 

would be conducive to learning and provide opportunities for vocational and athletic 

programs. 

Julius E. Sprauve convinced the Department of Interior and the local people to 

present their land for preservation in 1936, we today in 2007, have our Delegate 

to Congress Donna Christensen and her constituents trying to convince the department of Interior, that to allow Virgin Islanders to lease land for a school would be 

in the best interest for the entire island and its inhabitants. In 1936 the people and 

the Department of Interior (even after some opposition), did what was right for the 

future good of the Virgin Islands and the people that come here. 

We are asking the Department of Interior to consider the needs of our children 

and just as in 1936 there will be opposition, but be aware that the people of St. 

John will be following this bill with deep conviction of right and wrong. Bill H.R.53 

works for our children. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Jones. And the Chair now 

recognizes Ms. Cox for five minutes.

STATEMENT OF KRISTEN COX, ONE CAMPUS GROUP 

Ms. COX. Good evening to the House of Representatives’ 

Committee on Natural Resources, Delegate to Congress Donna 

Christensen, and members of the panel. I am Kristen Cox, CoChairperson of the One Campus Group on St. John. 

The 14 years that I have been residing on St. John, I have 

watched the schools become deplorable. I have heard, read and 

been told about our local government being involved in ongoing 

negotiations to work on finding, locating, and obtaining land to 

build a new public school for the community of St. John. 

The conditions that our children are being taught and the intrusive environment of that of our teaching staff, have surrendered to 

noise pollution, and the dilapidating, unsafe conditions of the building is simply just unjust. We have made do with the situation because we have not had any choice in the matter, and it’s time that 

we make a safe, comfortable environment for our children, staff 

and the community in our schools. 

23

I am asking the panel to bring the bill, H.R. 53, forth in the 

House of Representatives on behalf of the Virgin Islands with the 

Virgin Islands National Park’s signing a lease with the Virgin 

Islands Government to obtain and be part of a team network, 

building a new state-of-the-art K-12 school, with a vocational center that will be utilized by the children of St. John, community organizations, and offer opportunities for any persons wanting to further education is very important. 

We want to assist and provide, through this complex, and incorporate the National Park Service, in educating and mentoring the 

children of St. John, the community and tourists from abroad. 

We live in the 21st Century and our children need to be technologically competitive in this growing world we live in. Unless all of 

our children are all born naturally A-plus students and excel in 

every subject while attending grades K-12, the rate we are going, 

we are falling behind in the competitive world and we do not want 

to revert to functional illiteracy in the Virgin Islands. Our children 

are being left behind and are continuing to regress and the community is now becoming filled with criminals and are not being educated in a competitive level as the Iowa test results demonstrate 

each year, as does our drop-out rate at 40 percent this year. 

The island of St. John resident children are about 1,000 students 

plus or minus, divided between public, private schools and home 

school students from grades K-12. Our drop-out rate is increasing 

yearly, as our crime rate and our homicide rate between the ages 

of 16 and 25, obtained through the Daily News. 

My vision for St. John’s future school is three separate buildings, 

elementary, middle and high school, computers in each classroom, 

one central library, an athletic park with ball field, track and field, 

soccer, footfall, swimming pool, basketball court, tennis court, gymnasium with gymnastics, exercise gym equipment, a vocational 

learning center that combines existing facilities elsewhere with the 

United States, and the skills of teachers, researchers, the National 

Park Service, to educate, share information on marine biology, ecology, farming, science, communications, business management, auto 

mechanic, EMT, FEMA, Red Cross, Public Works. There is a long 

list where we can go with this. 

I now want to work together and be as successful as a team and 

Leave No Child Behind, all the sentiments that we’ve expressed, 

the deed, conveyance, death certificates, what the National Park 

has given us as reasons why this land in Catherineberg will work 

for a school, we are asking for 55 acres. We need 55 acres to be 

competitive in today’s world for a state-of-the-art complex. 

I hope that you will push this bill through the House of Representatives so this lease can be procured, and remember, we 

Leave No Children Left Behind. 

I thank all of you for hearing our testimony this evening. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Cox follows:]

Statement of Kristen Cox, Co-Chair, One Campus Group 

Good Evening: 

To The U.S. House of Representatives on the Committee on Natural Resources, 

Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen, and Members of the panel. 

I am, Kristen Cox, Co-Chair person of the One Campus Group on St John, I am 

a mother, an aunt, a cousin, a friend, and I am someone who cares about our chilVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:44 Jan 17, 2008 Jkt 098700 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 L:\DOCS\36646.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY
24

dren and the future of our community and opportunity for the local residents of St 

John. 

I am here before you today to testify why St John needs a new K through 12 

School on St John. 

The Fourteen years that I have been residing on St John I have watched the 

schools become deplorable. I have also heard, read and have been told that our local 

Government has been involved in ongoing negotiations to work on finding a location 

and obtaining land to build a new public school for the community of St John. 

The conditions our children are being taught and the intrusive environment that 

our teaching staff has surrendered to noise pollution and dilapidating unsafe conditions of our buildings is simply unjust. We have made due with what we have because we have not had a choice in the matter. It is time the Virgin Islands Department of Education is held accountable for the lack of follow through and responsibility to our local Government to make sure our schools are safe and comfortable 

for our children, staff and the community. 

I am asking for your panel to bring this bill forth in the House of Representatives. 

The Virgin Islands National Park signing a lease with the Virgin Islands Government to obtain and be part of a Team network, building a new state of the art K 

through 12 school with a vocational center that will be utilized by the children of 

St John, Community organizations and offer opportunities for any persons wanting 

to further their education. 

We want to assist and/or provide through this complex and incorporate the National Park Service in Educating and mentoring the St John children, our community and tourists from abroad. 

We live in the 21st Century and our children need to be technologically competitive in this growing world we live in. Unless ALL of our children are born naturally 

A+ students that excel in every subject, while attending grades K through 12, the 

rate we are going the U.S. Virgin Islands will revert to adult functional Illiteracy. 

Our children are being left behind and are continuing to regress and the community 

is now becoming filled with delinquents and criminals because they are not being 

educated at a competitive level as the Iowa test results demonstrate each year as 

does our drop our rate. 

The island of St. John resident children are about 1,000 students +/- divided up 

between public and private schools in grades K through 12. Our drop out rate is 

increasing yearly as is our crime rate and our homicide rate of ages 16 through 25. 

The poverty and low income level residents and our population is growing. We need 

change and the foundation for any change begins with education. 

We have an opportunity to change history and make the difference we have been 

waiting for. The One Campus Group wants to work together to accomplish a common goal of well educated students for a positive future, join hands with those who 

have, will and want to make a difference in the future of; the National Park Service 

of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Friends of the National Park of the Virgin Islands, The 

Rockefeller Foundation, The Jackson Hole Preserve, the Government of the Virgin 

Islands, the Department of Education of the Virgin Islands and incorporate the following in a State of the Art Education Complex far superior to any other in the 

Virgin Islands and the Caribbean abroad. 

My Vision of what St John’s future School needs are as follows: 

1. 3 Separate buildings on One Campus for Elementary, Middle and High school. 

*Computers in each class room (1 for each student) OR each building be 

equipped with a Computer Lab. 

2. One central Library 

3. Athletic Park with Ball field (base ball, Track & Field, Soccer, Football, etc), 

Swimming pool, Basket ball court, Tennis court, Gymnastics, Gym with exercise equipment, etc. 

4. A Vocational Learning Center that combines existing facilities elsewhere in the 

United States with the skills of teachers, researchers and the National Park 

Service to educate and share information on: marine biology, ecology, farming, 

science, communications, business management, wood working, auto mechanics 

and restoration, port authority, coast guard, EMT, FEMA, Red Cross, public 

works, etc. 

I know we can work together and will be successful as a team and No Child will 

be Left Behind. Refer to: Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, Exhibit D, Exhibit E and 

Exhibit F why we can start building our new future together today. 

I hope that you will push this bill through the House of Representatives so this 

Lease can be procured and remember we leave No Child Behind. 

Thank you for your time. 

[NOTE: The exhibits submitted for the record have been retained in the 

Committee’s official files.]

25

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Ms. Cox, and I will now recognize 

Mr. Kessler for five minutes.

STATEMENT OF JOE KESSLER, PRESIDENT,

FRIENDS OF VI NATIONAL PARK 

Mr. KESSLER. Thank you. The Friends of Virgin Islands National 

Park welcome the esteemed members of the Subcommittee to St. 

John. You honor our island and our park by your presence. We are 

pleased that you are holding these field hearings here so that you 

have the opportunity to hear from the entire community on the 

proposed legislation. We hope these hearings and ensuing discussions will move resolution of this important issue forward. 

The Friends is a non-profit membership based organization that 

is dedicated to the preservation and protection of the natural and 

cultural resources of Virgin Islands National Park and promotes 

the responsible enjoyment of this national treasure. 

Concerning the proposed Virgin Islands National Park School 

Lease Act, H.R. 53, the Friends, along with nearly everyone else 

as you’ve heard today, recognize the absolute need to relocate the 

current schools from their cramped, inappropriate and dangerous 

locations, and to expand the facilities to include 10-12 so that the 

island’s children do not have to leave St. John to attend public high 

school. 

The need for new educational facilities is not in question. It is 

real, it is urgent, and it must be made a high priority for the territorial government and this community. However, where to locate 

the new facility, what it should realistically include, how to build 

it, how to finance it, how to maintain it, and how to staff it are 

the real questions. These hearings address the key issue of the first 

question: How the required land for the new facility is to be acquired. We trust that the other issues will be dealt with in due 

course. 

Prior to the introduction of H.R. 53, three alternatives to acquire 

land for a new facility were being considered: The V.I. Government 

would either allocate land that it already owned; purchase sufficient land; or swap land with the National Park Services. 

However, as the territorial government does not own sufficient 

land on St. John and large parcels are generally difficult to find 

and prohibitively expensive if they were to be located, discussion 

centered on a land swap between the territorial government and 

the National Park Service. 

The Friends has strongly supported the concept of the swap and 

believe that we have played a key role in urging the National Park 

Service to be open and flexible in considering this possibility. This 

contributed to the NPS in February 2003, providing the V.I. Government with a list of properties which is comprised of land on St. 

John, small uninhabited offshore islands and even submerged 

lands that in some combination can be considered in exchange for 

land for a school within Virgin Islands National Park. The list was 

not exclusive and was meant to initiate concrete discussions on the 

issue. The proposal has languished since then. 

While we support swapping land, we have fundamental concerns 

and misgivings about providing V.I. National Park land to some 

sort of long-term lease arrangement as proposed by this legislation. 

26

Let’s be frank. Depending on the terms and conditions of the 

lease, the arrangement is the de facto sale or gift of the property 

to the V.I. Government. It will result in the net loss of National 

Park property and resources. Clearly, this land will never revert to 

being park land. 

The National Park Service is in the forever business. It is legally 

mandated to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and value of the National Park System. In this case, Virgin 

Islands National Park is for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations. Without question, this legislation would diminish, and therefore impair the natural and cultural 

resources of the Virgin Islands National Park. 

Furthermore, and perhaps more troubling, it will set a precedent 

that would in turn threaten national parks throughout the country. 

We wouldn’t dream of selling off or giving away parts of Yosemite 

or Grand Canyon National Parks, nor should we sell or give away 

a part of Virgin Islands National Park, especially since it’s a viable 

and preferable alternative. 

An exchange or swap of land remains, in our view, the most 

viable alternative. And in addition, an exchange could happen in 

a relatively short time if there is the institutional and political will 

to make it a reality. 

We appreciate and understand the concerns of some members of 

the community toward what is perceived as giving up additional 

lands to the National Park Service. Land is always an emotional 

issue, and passion about land does not run any deeper than it does 

here in the Virgin Islands. However, the underlying principle of a 

land exchange, or a swap, is that there is a give and there is a get. 

When two pieces or parcels of equally valued land are exchanged, 

both parties give up something and both parties get an equal share 

back in return. 

While the National Park Service is willing to exchange land for 

the benefit of St. John’s children, we must be clear, it is not a winwin situation. Aside from perhaps garnering some community goodwill and the satisfaction accrued from helping solve a community 

problem, the NPS has nothing whatsoever to gain from a land 

swap. The only beneficiaries of the land exchange that will provide 

for a new school are the children of St. John. 

In conclusion, we reiterate our position that H.R. 53 is not in the 

best interest of the people of St. John, the American public in general, nor the National Park Service. H.R. 53 will diminish, and 

therefore impair the natural and cultural resources of this beautiful National Park. And because of the precedent it sets, H.R. 53 

threatens all national parks and Americans enjoyment of these natural, cultural and historic treasures. 

Further, we ask this subcommittee, and particularly it’s Chairwoman, to use your influence to encourage the V.I. Territorial Government and the National Park Service, to enter into serious deliberations to exchange land for a school. The children of St. John deserve an immediate and concerted effort to resolve this impasse. 

Thank you for affording me the opportunity to offer this testimony. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kessler follows:]

27

Statement of Joe Kessler, President,

Friends of Virgin Islands National Park 

The Friends of Virgin Islands National Park (Friends) welcomes these field hearings on the proposed Virgin Islands National Park School Lease Act (H.R. 53) and 

we are pleased that you are here to hear from this community on the proposed legislation. We hope that these hearings and the ensuing discussions will help move resolution of this important issue forward. 

As President of the Friends I testify before you representing the 3,612 members 

of this organization. About 20% of our members are from the Virgin Islands and we 

are also proud to have members hailing from all 50 states, as well as twelve foreign 

countries. Members of the Friends are bound together by our love for Virgin Islands 

National Park, our commitment to the preservation and protection of the natural 

and cultural resources of the Park, and our appreciation of what the Park means 

for St. John and all of the Virgin Islands. 

Our appreciation is based on the conviction that because of VI National Park St. 

John is a world class tourist destination, a unique and safe place to live, and it enjoys considerable prosperity. St. John is a prosperous little island. Prosperous in the 

context of the Virgin Islands and prosperous in the context of the Caribbean: 

• St. John has one of the highest per capita incomes in the Caribbean; 

• St. John has the highest rate of private home ownership in the Caribbean; and, 

• Just about anyone on St. John who wants a job can find one—particularly in 

the hospitality industry, with retail businesses, or in the building trades. Just 

witness the hundreds of people who arrive every morning from St. Thomas to 

work here. 

We really have the Park to thank for this. In addition to the people of St. John—

it is the Park that makes this island so special! Furthermore, the Park is what 

drives the prosperity of this island; a 2004 study demonstrated that VI National 

Park generated more than $127 million in annual sales and 2,500 jobs in the Virgin 

Islands. 

Concerning the proposed Virgin Islands National Park School Lease Act 

(H.R. 53): 

The Friends, along with nearly everyone on St. John, recognizes the absolute need 

to relocate the current schools from their current cramped, inappropriate and dangerous locations; and expand the facilities to include grades 10-12 so that the island’s children do not have to leave St. John to attend public high school. 

The need for new educational facilities is not in question—it is real, it is urgent, 

and must be made a high priority for the territorial government and this community. However, where to locate the new facility, what it should realistically include, 

how to build it, how to maintain it, and how to staff it are the real questions. These 

hearings address the key issue of the first question: how the required land for a new 

facility is to be acquired. We trust that the other issues will be dealt with in due 

course. 

Prior to the introduction of H.R. 53, three alternatives to acquire land for a new 

educational facility were being considered: 

• The VI Territorial Government would allocate land that it already owned; 

• The VI Territorial Government would purchase sufficient land; and/or, 

• The VI Territorial Government would swap land with the National Park 

Service. 

However, as the territorial government does not own sufficient land on St. John 

and large parcels are generally difficult to find and prohibitively expensive if they 

were to be located, discussion centered on a land swap between the territorial government and the National Park Service. 

The Friends has strongly supported the concept of the swap and we have played 

a key role in urging the National Park Service to be open and flexible in considering 

this possibility. This contributed to the NPS, in February 2003, providing the VI 

Government a list of properties (comprised of land on St. John, small uninhabited 

offshore islands and submerged lands) that in some combination could be considered 

in an exchange for land for a school within VI National Park. This list was not exclusive and was meant to initiate concrete discussions on the issue. This proposal 

has languished since then. 

While we support swapping land we have fundamental concerns and misgivings 

about providing VI National Park land through some sort of long-term lease arrangement as proposed by this legislation. 

Let’s be frank; depending on the terms and conditions of a long-term lease, the 

arrangement is the de facto sale or gift of this property to the VI government and 

will result in the net loss of National Park property and resources. Clearly, this land 

will never revert to being parkland. 

28

The National Park Service is in the ‘‘forever business’’. It is legally mandated to: ‘‘preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the 

national park system [in this case, Virgin Islands National Park] for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations’. Without 

question, this legislation would diminish, and therefore impair, the natural and cultural resources of VI National Park. 

Furthermore, it will set a precedent that would in turn threaten national parks 

throughout the country. We wouldn’t dream of selling off or giving away parts of 

Yosemite or Grand Canyon national parks, nor should we sell or give away a part 

of VI National Park. This should not be given serious consideration, since there is 

a viable and preferable alternative. 

An exchange, or swap, of land remains the most viable option as it is allowable 

under existing NPS policy and does not require any new authorizing legislation, and 

there are properties that the NPS would accept in such an exchange. In addition, 

an exchange could happen in a relatively short time, if there is the institutional and 

political will to make it a reality. 

We appreciate and understand the concerns of some members of the community 

towards what is perceived as giving up additional lands to the NPS. Land is always 

an emotional issue and passion about land does not run any deeper than here in 

the Virgin Islands. However, the underlying principle of a land exchange, or swap, 

is that there is a ‘‘give’’ and a ‘‘get’’—two pieces (or combination of pieces) of equally 

valued land are exchanged. Both parties give up something and both get an equal 

share back in return. 

However, we must be clear: this is not a ‘‘win-win’’ situation. Aside from perhaps 

garnering some community goodwill and the satisfaction accrued from helping solve 

a community problem, the NPS has nothing to gain from a land swap—yet they are 

willing to go ahead with it. The only beneficiaries of a land exchange that will provide for a new school are the children of St. John. I suggest that we all look at the 

bigger picture and envision this island’s children growing up, learning, and playing 

in a modern educational facility located in a peaceful environment conducive to 

learning. 

In conclusion, we reiterate our position that H.R. 53 is not in the best interests 

of the people of St. John, the American public in general, nor the National Park 

Service. H.R. 53 will diminish, and therefore impair, the natural and cultural resources of this beautiful national park; and, because of the precedent it sets, 

H.R. 53 threatens all national parks and Americans’ enjoyment of these natural, 

cultural and historic treasures. 

Further we ask this subcommittee, and particularly it’s Chairwoman, to use your 

influence to encourage the VI Territorial Government and the National Park Service 

to enter into serious deliberations to exchange land for a school. The children of St. 

John deserve immediate and concerted efforts to resolve this impasse. 

Thank you for affording me the opportunity to offer this testimony.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Kessler. The Chair now recognizes Mr. Sprauve for his testimony.

STATEMENT OF GAYLORD SPRAUVE 

Mr. SPRAUVE. First of all, good evening. I am Gaylord A. 

Sprauve. I’m a resident of the U.S. Virgin Islands with long established family relationships on the island of St. John. 

As a youngster and later as a teenager, I was privileged to be 

in the company of my siblings and other relatives as we roamed 

across the landscape hunting and collecting bait for fishing around 

the islands and cays that surround the main island of St. John. We 

enjoyed the land and we enjoyed the sea that was all around us. 

We did this before there was ever a National Park in our midst and 

we enjoyed our experiences without restrictions other than those 

that were self-imposed. 

Though not schooled in the science or art of conservation or preservation, we employed our own sense of what amounted to appropriate behavior in the treatment and care of our ecology. We did 

so keeping in mind that others will follow in our footsteps who 

would want to enjoy the same precious experiences that were ours. 

29

Those happy, joyful, pleasant memories remain in my consciousness today. 

It was in the mid-1950’s when we realized a National Park would 

come to St. John. With limited or no experience with such an endeavor, many of us witnessed, while standing silently on the sideline, as our cultural upbringing dictated, while senior heads of our 

families sold off their lands for the purpose of what would become 

the Virgin Islands National Park. Little did senior heads of our 

families, and even those of us coming of age realize that we knew 

very little about what was entailed in having a National Park on 

St. John and what it meant for the future of the homeland. As the 

park developed, St. John was rediscovered, and over time was 

transformed forever into what it is today, with the scarcity of affordable land for the resident population, to build individual homes 

or adequate land reserved by the government for important public 

programs and services. H.R. 53, as proposed by Delegate 

Christensen, is an acknowledgement of the contention that our 

leaders failed to plan adequately for the future needs of our schoolaged population and the larger St. John community. H.R. 53 attempts to address the most vexing problem of acquiring a site upon 

which to construct an educational, cultural and recreational complex that would satisfy not only the immediate need of moving the 

school or schools, but also the future needs of St. John as envisioned by the people of St. John, in consultation with their government leaders. 

Conceptually, I support this major step by the Delegate. The land 

lease that H.R. 53 proposes is the third option of those that I suggested in an August 7, 2006 guest opinion in our local Daily News, 

following a public announcement that the then, Governor Charles 

Turnbull, was proposing a land swap with the Virgin Islands National Park that included several of St. John cays. 

In my rebuttal to the Governor’s proposed land swap, I called his 

announcement premature and suggested that we seek congressional assistance with our plight in the form of an outright grant 

of the acreage required to accomplish the desired public purposes 

of such a grant. Alternatively, I suggested a use permit for a number of years and possibly into perpetuity. The lease option, the subject of H.R. 53 was my third option. I hope that whichever option 

is approved by Congress will be one that is negotiated for no more 

than a nominal fee and, therefore, economically feasible for the 

local government. 

Once again, I take this opportunity to commend Delegate 

Christensen for her leadership and vision in this matter. I hope 

that she is successful in having this legislation adopted. Thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sprauve follows:]

Statement of Gaylord A. Sprauve,

Resident of the U.S. Virgin Islands 

I am Gaylord A Sprauve. I am a resident of the U.S. Virgin Islands with long established family relationships on the island of St. John. As a youngster and later 

as a teenager, I was privileged to be in the company of my siblings and other relatives as we roamed across the landscape hunting and collecting bait for fishing 

around the islands and cays that surround the main island of St. John. We enjoyed 

the land and we enjoyed the sea. We did this before there was ever a National Park 

in our midst and we enjoyed our experiences without restrictions other than those 

30

that were self-imposed. Though not schooled in the science or art of conservation 

or preservation, we employed our own sense of what amounted to appropriate behavior in the treatment and care, of our ecology. We did so keeping in mind that 

others would follow in our footsteps who would want to enjoy the same precious experiences that were ours. Those happy, joyful, pleasant memories remain in my consciousness today! 

In the mid-1950s, we realized that a National Park would come to St. John. With 

limited or no experience with the introduction of such an endeavor, many of us witnessed, while standing silently on the sideline as our cultural upbringing dictated, 

as senior heads of our families sold off their lands for the purpose of what would 

become the Virgin Islands National Park. Little did the senior heads of our families 

and even those of us coming of age realized what the creation of a National Park 

on St. John entailed and what it meant for the future of the homeland. St. John 

was soon rediscovered and over time was transformed forever into what it is todaywith a scarcity of affordable land for the resident population to build individual 

homes or adequate land reserves by the government for important public programs 

and services. 

H.R. 53 as proposed by Delegate Christensen is an acknowledgement of the contention that our leaders failed to plan adequately for the future needs of our schoolaged population and the larger St. John community. H.R. 53 attempts to address 

the most vexing problem of acquiring a site upon which to construct an educational 

and cultural complex that would satisfy not only the immediate need of moving the 

school or schools, but also, the future needs of St. John as envisioned by the people 

of St. John, in consultation with their government leaders. 

Conceptually, I support this major step by the Delegate. The land lease that 

H.R. 53 proposes is the third option of those that I suggested in an August 7, 2006 

Guest Opinion in our local Daily News, following a public announcement that the 

then, Governor Charles Turnbull was proposing a land swap with the Virgin Islands 

National Park that included several of St. John cays. 

In my rebuttal to the Governor’s proposed land swap, I called his announcement 

premature and suggested that we seek congressional assistance with our plight in 

the form of an outright grant of the acreage required to accomplish the desired purposes of such a grant. Secondarily, I suggested a use permit for a number of years 

and possibly on into perpetuity. The lease option, the subject of H.R. 53 was my 

third option. I hope that the option approved by Congress will be one for no more 

than a nominal fee and therefore, economically practical for the local government. 

Once again, I take this opportunity to commend Delegate Christensen for her 

leadership and vision on this matter.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Sprauve for that very moving 

testimony. 

Our last person to testify on this panel is former Senator Craig 

Barshinger. And we recognize you for five minutes.

STATEMENT OF CRAIG BARSHINGER, FORMER SENATOR 

Mr. BARSHINGER. Thank you, Delegate Christensen. Welcome to 

the members of the Committee, all those who are here to support, 

and the many St. Johnians of our beloved and beautiful, diverse St. 

Thomas community. 

Delegate, you asked a little while ago about legislation. Senator 

Hill has in place a bill that provides for the Virgin Islands Government to interface with this. Anticipating this, I introduced legislation in the 26th Legislature for drafting, and turned it over to 

Senator Hill when I left on January 8th. It’s all there. We were hoping that the previous administration would work on it and it seems 

that it’s now in this administration under your leadership that 

we’re really going to go forward. 

I would like to tell the Committee something about St. John. St. 

John and the Virgin Islands National Park is, indeed, a beautiful 

place. But when you think of St. John, you have to realize it’s not 

the blue waters and green hills that make it valuable. It’s the 

people who live here, and the history, the story that goes with it. 

31

From back in the 1700’s we have a rich history and a culture. 

There is nothing you can do as stewards of the National Park that 

is a greater investment than to partner with us in educating our 

youths. 

By our very success as the National Park, our community is beleaguered. You have heard that you cannot really buy land on St. 

John. Let me put that into perspective. A young man or woman 

growing up on St. John today cannot reasonably hope to purchase 

a home. It’s about $1 million for the home. We are in trouble and 

we need some help from the National Park Service, Department of 

the Interior, and ultimately the Congress. 

So, although I’m a businessman at heart and believe in a quid 

pro quo, if we are to have a lease, and that lease was to be for 

$1.00 a year for 15 acres or 100 acres, it would be a good deal for 

the people of the United States, because in return, they would get 

an opportunity to strengthen the culture of St. John, which, as I 

said, is what makes this such a valuable park. 

It’s not just the land, but it’s the way we use the land, the way 

we interact, the way we sail, the way we go fishing for yellow-tail. 

All the things that we do in this park, the history. And if we don’t 

have a good educational system, we are not able to offer that vital 

communication to those people who visit this park. 

As far as exchanging, I’m a little dismayed that there has been 

some talk about an even exchange of land. While I cannot say that 

it’s not appropriate to exchange things of equal value, I have to ask 

you, what is the comparison between some generally featureless 

land, as the Acting Superintendent Martha Bogle has pointed out, 

and maybe an exchange of stewardship for something on Congo 

Cay where the park could get petroglyphs. Isn’t it true that just 

one small highly important historical site might be worth many 

acres of flat land where we could build a school? Think about that 

in your negotiations. Don’t allow yourself to miss the opportunity 

to partner with St. John in our educational quest by insisting on 

unreasonable exchanges. 

We have so much to offer in terms of our people, our culture, and 

also certain sites where perhaps you would like to be in the business of being stewards for them. But certainly we cannot find 55 

or 100 acres, but we can find intensely valuable sites that if you 

would be willing to be custodians, that certainly would be something that is reasonable to discuss, but please don’t be unreasonable. We don’t want to be back here five years from now, ten years. 

We want to invite you five years from now for the big party as we 

cut the ribbon on our new educational complex. 

My time is coming to an end, so I’ll just tell you that students 

sense how serious we, as adults are, about their education and 

future. 

Right now, I hope you have a chance to tour what we have on 

St. John. It’s insufficient. Many of our social problems will be 

healed if we can show the students that we are fighting for them 

as we are beleaguered by the 1.2-plus million visitors to our shores 

every years. 

We need your help in making sure that St. John can deal with 

the changes. And the way you can help us best is to help us by giving us the land we need in order to make a school complex which 

32

is state-of-the-art. Not 10 acres, not 20 acres, but enough in the 

range of 50 acres will allow us to do it right. Architecturally we can 

make it something you will be very proud of, but we need your 

help, and I ask the Delegate and all from the committee to assist 

us. Thank you very much. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I want to thank all of the panelists for their 

testimony. And now, I would like to recognize Mr. Grijalva for such 

questions that he might have. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I will be brief. Let 

me begin with Ms. Monsanto. Can you just for background again, 

can you give me a breakdown of the 700 students roughly from 

John, roughly grade level? I’m also interested in how that separates, as you mentioned it, between public students and private 

students. 

Ms. MONSANTO. What I did is I incorporated public and private 

school students who live on St. John and traverse back and forth 

and also attend school on St. John. So you’re not only looking at 

students who go to the public school right now. You have to look 

at those high school students who go to St. Thomas. You have to 

look at the private sector who also goes to St. Thomas for school 

for educational benefits. So, we encompassed that number. That’s 

the number we came up with roughly. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Do you then see this campus that we’re talking 

about to serve both populations? 

Ms. MONSANTO. Yes, because ultimately the population on the 

east end of St. Thomas is also saturated. That school is full to 

capacity. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. The assumption being that the private school students would then come back to a public school. 

Ms. MONSANTO. Hopefully, yes. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Because it would be a public facility. 

Ms. MONSANTO. Correct. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. And Mr. Kessler, you mentioned—Mr. Jones, if I 

may. Mr. Jones, if I may, thank you for the historical context in 

which—the background that you gave us. 

When Mr. Rockefeller made the decision the two-thirds of the 

land on St. John will be given as a National Park, but 

correspondently as you mentioned, there was also a commitment to 

the people of St. John as part of that process. And to answer some 

of the issues of precedence, which I think is a question that needs 

to be dealt with, is there any, in that historical record or in that 

historical contents, educational opportunities for children of St. 

John? Was that part of the consideration in that transfer? 

Mr. JONES. Sir, the specifics of it, we have here in front of us 

from a letter to Senator Anderson from L.S. Rockefeller, 

September 13, 1962, which speaks specifically to the Jackson 

Hope, consideration and acreage that were laid out. We have Estate Bellevue, 101 acres; Estate Beverthouberg, 265.6 acres. These 

are the properties that were spoken about to be used for the betterment of the island, for the people. But as Ms. Monsanto discussed 

earlier, when she went back to Jackson Hope Preserve, they said 

that that land was no longer in existence. 

So, more specific as to what Mr. Rockefeller meant when he said 

for the betterment of the community, frankly, I personally never 

33

envisioned the need for condemnation from the earliest days of acquiring the land of the Virgin Islands, as well as throughout the 

discussions leading to the Park in 1956. I have felt and I have said 

I was not in favor of condemnation. I don’t have the specifics as to 

what he meant broadly, but I understand that when the Senator, 

which is Mr. Julius C. Sprauve, my great uncle, when he looked 

at the island, he was looking at the island at that time as what 

would be a good deal for—as his relative, another cousin of mine 

on the table stated, that we didn’t have the bigger vision. 

When I was 18 years old, I always said that one day as we continue to grow, without not understanding how the National Park 

worked, I always said, one day the National Park would have to 

give us pieces and pieces of its land, because as our people grew 

and our population grew, what do we do? Do we just pack up and 

leave and then say only tourists can come and look at an island 

that people used to inhabit? So, at some point I always figured that 

it would be a reasonable thing as population grew. And these were 

the people who are from here, that you would make room for us 

to grow and to live on the same island. 

And to add to that, when people come here, people come here to 

talk to the people. They come to talk to us. They want to hear me 

say, ‘‘Hey mon, fry fish and johnny cake today.’’ They don’t come 

to see some deers running around in some bush. They come to see 

that, plus hear me speak or hear my family speak. Other than 

that, they tell us all the time, if I want to get an American experience, I stay in America. They come here for us. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. And your point is well-taken, because the tradition where I come from is that there is a deep and abiding historical and cultural bond between the land and the people, and the 

originators of that land. So, yes, I couldn’t agree with you more. 

Mr. Kessler, you mentioned the issue of the swap and the precedence, which I think, as we go through this process, that needs to 

be dealt with. But given the parcel that we talked about, that is 

being talked about today, is there specific concerns that the 

Friends have related to that parcel and the leasing of that parcel? 

How would that impact the Park? 

And maybe, if I could for the record, Madam Chair, we’ve been 

dealing with a 10-acre discussion here, but also repeatedly from the 

witnesses, we are dealing with a 55 acre discussion, and we could 

reconcile that by information as to why the Park Service is dealing 

with 10, when consistently we’ve heard of 55. Maybe we can get 

that from the Park Service, OK? 

Mr. KESSLER. OK. To your first question, Friends has no problem 

at all with the land that’s been proposed for a swap, the land that’s 

been proposed as being suitable for some sort of interaction to provide for an educational facility. 

If I could on the issue of the 10 versus 55 or whatever, and this 

is more of a personal observation, there hasn’t been any sort of consensus as to what this facility would actually include, what the 

land would actually be used for other than a school. And certainly, 

as part of the process of determining, one, how much land is really 

required, is the process of planning out whatever this facility will 

be, and whatever other ancillary services or structures or activities 

that would happen on there, and also what’s feasible, we have to 

34

look, one, how much land is potentially available; how much it will 

cost to develop that into some sort of facility; how much money is 

going to be available to do it. And then we have to also deal with 

all of the other problems that the current education services in the 

Virgin Islands has to face, which is how do you maintain it? How 

do you staff the facility? 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Thank you. 

Mr. KESSLER. Those issues need to be dealt with, and I have 

every confidence they will be dealt with within the community, 

with extra assistance. Those things need to be determined. You just 

can’t pull out a figure and say, well, we need 55 acres or even we 

need 10 acres. 

And again, the Friends has been supportive of the swap, and 

think that the land that has been identified is appropriate in terms 

of a location. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. The issue to you is the mechanism. 

Mr. KESSLER. The issue to us is the lease. The lease is a de facto 

sale or gift to the property, a precedent that was set for National 

Parks throughout the country. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. And let me just follow up with a hypothetical. I 

don’t know how to phrase this question, but I was asking Mr. Jones 

and the One Campus representatives about the history of the 

Rockefeller, the context, the historical context. And as I understand 

from them, from their testimony and from answering the question, 

there was an intent on the part of Rockefeller to, as part of the 

process, there would be a net public benefit for the people of St. 

John and your point regarding the precedence of a lease and what 

effect that could have across the National Park Service system nationally in the territory. 

So, is that an either/or proposition, giving the intent and giving 

the issue of the precedence. 

Mr. KESSLER. Well, the intent was also—the Jackson Hall Preserve owned lots of land on St. John, in addition to the land that 

was donated to the Department of the Interior for the creation of 

Virgin Islands National Park, and over time, they sold off that 

property. 

I have no further information than what was provided by the 

other testifiers, and I’m certainly happy to accept their understanding of it, but we do have Virgin Islands National Park created 

initially from the 5,000 acres donated by Jackson Hall Preserve. 

Another 2,800 acres have been acquired and added in the last 50 

years. So, we have some—or 1,800 acres. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. I appreciate it, Mr. Kessler. Thank you for responding to my question. Sir, you wanted to respond, Mr Jones. 

Mr. JONES. In relation to helping you get the perspective on the 

10 acres, the administration before under Governor Turnbull, we 

had an administrator by the name of Julien Harley, and he had 

gathered a group of people together when the first options were 

coming up of the swap and so forth. And at the time, given the size 

of the island and the population, they came up with—and they 

weren’t looking at a full complex. They were looking at a basic 

school. And they came up—that’s why 10 acres came up and that’s 

what the National Park had started moving with. 

35

But as we look at the school now, the potential for a school now, 

and as the school administrator spoke a minute ago, and she talked 

about a full campus, that’s not throwing something out of the hat. 

You can look at any school in the United States and know what 

a full campus is. And a full campus is more than 10 acres. And we 

have groups here now who have already started the process of 

identifying the cost, the exact size. They are not throwing out 55 

acres like throwing it out of a hat. It’s just that our organization 

on St. John hasn’t all yet come together to get the consensus, but 

we know the average of a full campus with a gymnasium and all 

the other avenues, and we’re also asking the National Park to participate, because they have programs that can help our culture in 

educating people that come here, that they can use that facility to 

benefit the community also. But still, we haven’t all come together 

on what we’re trying to do. That’s why we’re honoring the Delegate 

on what she’s doing, because the first thing we have to do is get 

the land. 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Madam Chair, I have no further questions, thank 

you. I yield back. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva. And if you do have 

a question as we go along, I will yield to you again. Thank you. 

Let me begin with—I’ll ask Ms. Monsanto, because you first 

raised the issue of the 55 acres. Can you speak to the typography 

of those 55 acres? I assumed that 10 were singled out because the 

land is suitable. It is flat. It is more easily—it could more easily 

accommodate the school and all of the other parts of the complex 

that have been mentioned, but could you speak to the typography 

of the 55 acres? 

Ms. MONSANTO. In reference to the 55 acres, we submitted information to your office before testimony. We gave a map the National 

Park gave us of the property. The property is basically flat. No, we 

have not had a surveyor to go out there. We do know there are a 

lot of guts and stuff like that that will have to be worked on. However, we do want to build an environmental friendly environment 

there. So, these are things that we can work together to make this 

campus an excellent campus for everyone to be happy with. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I’m glad you raised up the map, because I 

was going to ask Mr. Jones if he would like to submit the document 

you were reading from for the record. 

Ms. MONSANTO. I submitted that already. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. That’s part of the testimony and your map is 

part of the testimony too, OK. 

Ms. MONSANTO. Yes. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. OK. And I know Ms. Monsanto, too, that you, 

Ms. Cox and others have done extensive research on properties. For 

the record, have you identified alternative properties or any local 

government property on St. John? 

Ms. MONSANTO. The local government does not have enough 

property to match the school that we’re speaking of. 

I do want to make a very important comment. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Yes. 

Ms. MONSANTO. The children of this community, and I have a 

child that’s being raised in this community, they are diamonds. 

And they are pure diamonds. They have to be polished. So, they 

36

need this school. And they are not going to be put on the sideline 

to protect lands. Because some of this land—some of the lands that 

the National Park has is not theirs. So, if you really want to talk 

about history, we could go have a history class tonight, but we 

don’t have the time, OK. 

So, the National Park, I have asked for years, show me your survey, show me your bounds. You own land that is not yours. We are 

asking for 55 acres to educate the diamonds of this environment 

and it’s a problem. The National Park is acquiring land in Mahoe 

Bay Estate. They are amassing more lands from family members. 

How much more blood must we give them? How much more should 

we cry? 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I think you—well, let me just say for the 

record to that, I asked the question to have on the record that 

there is no other available——

Ms. MONSANTO. There is no other available land. It’s important 

to the record, OK, there is no other available land. Our founding 

fathers, like Gaylord Sprauve eluded to, we live a simple life. Their 

vision was not the vision of today. Times have changed. We have 

new visionaries in our environment. Here we are at the table. Here 

we are all around here. We have youngsters sitting in this audience 

today who are going to be running this government and doing 

things that we never dreamed of. So, we have to make sure that 

they are educated correctly in the right environment, that they 

have everything everybody else is afforded. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. That’s true. We don’t disagree, but we want 

to make sure that the record shows that really that there is no alternatives. 

Ms. MONSANTO. There is no alternative. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. And Mr. Jones, we talked about the 55 acres 

verses 10. Is there a minimum acreage that the group, that—because I even think that I remember Mr. Harley talking about more 

than 10 acres at one point also. Was there a minimum that was 

identified, acreage that was identified? And if you can’t answer, if 

anyone else can answer. 

Ms. COX. Our group did a study. We researched it on the internet, and elementary schools are starting anywhere between 10 and 

12 acres. Middle schools start at 15 to 20. High schools start at 25 

and up. 

So, we’re talking about a condensed location with what our needs 

and what our vision is for St. John, and 55 acres would probably 

just do it for us. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. Thank you, for the research. Did 

you want to respond to, Mr. Sprauve? 

Mr. SPRAUVE. I want to say something. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Yes, go right ahead, sir. 

Mr. SPRAUVE. I think we’ve heard two speakers here this evening 

speak about the precedent that would be set with National Parks 

nationally. I’m am not a lawyer, so I am not speaking on any legal 

basis. The issue might be a legal one. We are an unincorporated 

territory of the United States. As such, the Congress of the United 

States determines what we get, what we don’t get, how we get it. 

And it has nothing to do with national issues. It is we are property 

of the United States, and the Congress has the right to do what 

37

it wishes with us, including disposing of us. They can also do all 

needful rules and regulations to govern us, and I don’t see why we 

keep raising this issue. If Congress determined that that 55 acres 

that is not now caught up with the reversionary clause, even 

though I would raise the question about that, has anyone approached, anyone in authority approached the Rockefeller Foundation on easing that provision so that we can do what we need to 

do here on St. John? 

That’s the kind of comments that I have here. I want to know 

Congress’ role, since it is a congressional hearing, Congress’ role in 

governing these territories. And if Congress feels that this is what 

they need to do, notwithstanding any other argument about the national concerns, it seems to me the lawyers in the audience should 

be the ones to be talking this talk. They should be the ones to be 

helping us clarify this. But I think this is an important consideration. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. And it applies in other areas as 

well. So, thank you for that comment. 

Ms. Cox, you mentioned the different types of students we have, 

including home school. Do you believe that if we had the school 

that we are envisioning here this evening, that some of those home 

school children—some of the parents would stop home school and 

send them to a preferred school in a better educational environment and a safe environment? 

Ms. COX. Absolutely, without a doubt. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Jones, you wanted to answer. 

Mr. JONES. I am one of those home schooling parents. As I came 

home with my children and I started at the Julius C. Sprauve 

School, I was teaching there for one year. The school was deplorable. It’s way too old. It’s out-sized. There were too many things 

that created a hostile environment for the teachers, a hostile environment for the children, and the need for a new school was there. 

Then I decided to go to the private school. The private school, even 

with scholarships I pay $8,000 per child per year. They told me 

this last school year you would have to pay $9,000 per child. So, 

I’m now home schooling. 

And I know from many of the parents, because I was one of the 

PTA persons at both schools, the private school and the public, 

many of those parents who are making those payments right now, 

they might be Caucasians but they are not wealthy. And they 

would love for us to get one great school that they feel that their 

kids would be safe in and the education would be top notch, and 

we would have a beautiful school, just like St. John has always 

been the melting pot of all races of people and all cultures. So, it 

will be the ideal thing. And many parents would take their kids out 

and put them in there. 

And also to add a little touch to that, many of the parents are 

hoping that we could put all the schools together, but it wouldn’t 

be under a public only status. It would be under a public/private 

status, which is something we have going on now in the states——

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. The charter schools. 

Mr. JONES. The charter schools. A lot of parents have said, yes, 

I will bring my kids over if we could have that combination. Now, 

we have a lot to do in learning how that works and if it would benVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:44 Jan 17, 2008 Jkt 098700 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 L:\DOCS\36646.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY
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efit the Virgin Islands. But yes, many parents in private school 

would bring their kids to the public school if they felt it was safe 

and it produced an excellent learning environment. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. Mr. Kessler, the parcel of land 

that’s in question here was not a part of the original park, and the 

park existed up until ’68 without this particular parcel. So, could 

you then explain to me why you think that leasing a portion or all 

of that particular parcel would diminish the park since it was not 

part of the original land set aside for the park. 

Mr. KESSLER. Well, since that time, it has been a part of the 

park. It is currently a part of the park. And by taking that out of 

the park, it would diminish both the natural and cultural resources 

that contributes to the overall inventory of the Virgin Islands National Park. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. OK. And if I recall correctly from looking and 

hearing the testimony of the Acting Superintendent, the reason 

that this particular parcel was chosen was that there is not any 

historical or cultural resources or very limited cultural and historical resources on this particular parcel of land. 

Mr. KESSLER. I believe she said there hasn’t been an inventory 

of the cultural resources there. If you look elsewhere in that area 

of Catherineberg, I mean you have the windmill, you have the historic buildings, you have the historic walls. I think it will be fairly 

safe to assume that within neighboring properties, you have some 

similar historic structures. I mean, with the Virgin Islands National Park, there is some 500 to 600 historically significant structures in various states of repair and disrepair. And so it’s safe to 

say that you would find resources there. 

Again, apparently the park has never inventoried that area. But 

I think it would be safe to say so. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Well, in any case, I would just imagine that 

based on the testimony and the criteria that is used, that the park 

would not have ventured to offer a particular parcel of land if it 

had significant value to the park. And so that’s why I raised that 

question. 

Mr. KESSLER. No, I understand that. And I think, at least from 

my understanding, obviously I don’t speak for the park, my understanding from conversations is one of the reasons or part of the 

reasons why the park offer that was, one, it was a convenient location to put a school. It was between Cruz Bay and Coral Bay. It 

was on the main road to ease transportation. It was a relatively 

flat area, which is obviously a premium on St. John. It also abuts 

developed areas. So, you’re not like carving something out in the 

middle of park land. But on the edge of the park, there is also a 

ridge to the north that would then shield the campus from view 

from the north shore or from sea so as not to impair the visual aspect of the park. And those are just some of the reasons that they 

chose that area. 

Also, obviously, as has been discussed by many of the panel, it 

wasn’t included within—it was a later acquisition and, therefore, 

not included within the reversionary conditions. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Right. But it just seems to me that it could 

be exchanged, that it met certain criteria that would also apply to 

the lease. 

39

Go ahead, you wanted to add a response? 

Mr. SPRAUVE. Thank you, Delegate Christensen. I just wanted to 

comment on your question, because I see it a little differently than 

Mr. Kessler does. The land which is presently within the boundaries of the National Park are not part of the National Park. And 

I asked the Committee to look at St. John because there is something very unique that gives you a broad brush to create something 

new that wouldn’t apply to other parks, and that is that we are one 

of the only parks that does not have the right of condemnation. 

People from the Virgin Islands went to Washington in the 50’s, 

and we rode on donkey backs in Washington protesting the concept 

that they might have right of condemnation. And for those in the 

audience who don’t know, that means that almost all of the other 

units of the National Park Service have the ability to condemn the 

land and pay fair market value, and put that land into the park. 

We do not. There is a reason for it. We’re special and we ask you 

to use that special dispensation to give us land. Make it available 

to us to create an educational campus. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. Thank you for adding that piece 

of information. And Mr. Sprauve, I know your first, second and 

third alternatives in order of preference, but there has also been 

some talk on exchanging land maybe from St. Croix for the land 

for the school in St. John. And if that was possible—of course we 

would have to discuss it with others—I will let you answer also 

after Mr. Sprauve answers. 

I want to just point out that the reason for this hearing is to get 

as much information on the record so that when we go back to 

Washington, we would have that information with which to continue our deliberations and make our decisions. So, I’m trying to 

get as much as possible on the record because that discussion has 

been taking place. 

Would you consider such an exchange as being—where would 

you consider that exchange in terms of your first, second and third? 

Mr. SPRAUVE. I’m happy to respond. I think everything that I 

have said over the past couple of years is that any available public 

lands that is government owned, you can’t do this with a private 

individual. A private individual wishes to sell his land, he can do 

that. But I do not believe that we should enlarge the park with any 

more Virgin Islands’ public lands, period. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. OK, got it. That’s not something that I was 

proposing, but it has been proposed and brought to my attention 

that there are some discussions. So, that response is very helpful. 

Do you still want to respond or do you think that took care of 

it, Ms. Monsanto? 

Ms. MONSANTO. Since we’re putting things on the record, I also 

want to confer that I am in total agreement. Why should we swap 

precious land on St. Croix for land on St. John? We have to be fair. 

And I think if we’re going to speak partnerships, I think—the 

major problem that has always been on St. John, we have always 

said, and I’m going to say it so this could be on the record, Friends 

of the Park, enemy of the state. 

So, place that on the record. We have to work together to make 

sure that we are tangible partners in the management of everything that goes on in this park. The National Park was set up for 

40

the people of St. John. When the Park was set up, they thought 

the Park was being here for all of their generations to enjoy. We 

no longer enjoy the Park. How many people in this room pay $4.00 to go to Trunk Bay? 

When do we enjoy the Park? People who live here, we do not enjoy 

this Park. It is a constant fight every day with this Park. And 

we’re saying, we’re putting out the olive branch now and we’re saying, yes, the Delegate has brought something to the table. It is a 

feasible thing. We all can understand the lease. Let’s work together. We don’t want to be adversarial. We want to work together. 

The olive branch has been extended, but we, too, want everyone to 

respect us, and we don’t want to take anything from anybody else. 

Our sister islands, they also have things that they need, and it 

would be unjust and unfair. Thank you. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. Mr. Grijalva, did you have any 

further questions? 

Mr. GRIJALVA. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, and let me thank 

all the witnesses today. I appreciate it very much. And if I may 

say, Madam Chair, I think one of the important points here, and 

I appreciate all the testimony, one of the important points here is 

the community of St. John and their needs for the future. And I 

appreciated all the testimony today about that, particularly education. 

The concept of the land that was donated to the Federal government, there was—we need to be consistent with that donation. And 

yes, part of the donation was for the preservation and the conservation of valuable, beautiful land on St. John. But also, as I understand the testimony and the record, also part of that consistency 

of that donation was the derived benefit and public use for the 

people of St. John, and with that, Madam Chair, I think, as we 

work through this legislation. And thank you very much for bringing this to all of us. It’s keeping that consistency and what the purpose of the donation was to preserve and keep a special place for 

everybody else to enjoy, but at the same time, to derive some benefit for the people of St. John. Thank you. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. And I really want to just again before we 

close, to thank you for taking the time. I know it was not easy, to 

come here and be a part of this hearing as Chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, as well as a valuable committee 

member on the Committee on Education and Labor. 

As I said in my opening statement, we have gone through this 

over the last ten years moving from one point to the other. We 

started out with working toward an administrative exchange of 

lands between the V.I. Government and the Park. We went from 

there to try to legislate such an exchange. But in listening to the 

people of St. John, all of the people of St. John, we have really left 

the exchange issue behind at this point. 

And that’s why in this Congress, we really looked at what was 

the most feasible thing that we could introduce. And as we began, 

as we ended the last Congress and began this one, and discussed 

it with Mr. Frederick, the past Superintendent, we thought that 

perhaps this lease was the most feasible way to move forward. 

I would say that we have not totally written out the possibility 

of a conveyance, and we are continuing to research that. We underVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:44 Jan 17, 2008 Jkt 098700 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6602 L:\DOCS\36646.TXT Hresour1 PsN: KATHY
41

stand that that is the preference for the people of St. John and we 

want to be responsive not just to one group, but to the other group. 

But we want to be responsive in a way that is to the benefit of all 

of the people on St. John and most especially our children, because 

the issue here is providing a safe and nurturing and supportive 

educational environment for our children. And obviously the 

schools that we have now and the locations that they are in now 

are not providing that kind of an environment for our children. 

So, we need to find a way to move this as quickly as possible. 

Thirty years is too long, and I think we’ve gone through the exchange issue. So, we are not going to deal with that. 

The testimony that has been given here from all of our panels 

has been very, very helpful, as well as those that have been submitted in writing. 

Again, I would want to invite anyone who continues to want to 

provide written testimony, that for the next ten business days, the 

Committee’s record is open, and we would welcome any written testimony that would come forward. 

I want to thank our panelists, but I also want to thank the community for the strong showing. Not having heard testimony from 

all of you, your presence here, though, is a very loud and very significant testimony in itself, and we thank you all for being here. 

The Committee now stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

NOTE: Although the following individuals were unable to personally testify, their statements submitted for the record have been 

retained in the Committee’s official files. 

• Steve Black 

• Theodore Chouiniere 

• Alvis Christian 

• Elsa Emily Hall 

• Crystal Fortwangler, Ph.D. • Richard P. Decker • Owen Sewer, Sr., Virgin Islands Board of Education • Christophena Todman • Donald J. Willey

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