St. Croix Schools Are Being Rebuilt From the Ground Up. Here’s What That Means.

St. Croix schools reached a turning point this month. On Friday, August 7, the Virgin Islands government cut the ribbon on the new Arthur A. Richards PreK-8 School, the first public school in the history of the U.S. Virgin Islands to be rebuilt from the ground up with federal disaster recovery funding. Students walked through the doors the following Monday for the first day of the school year.

It is a milestone worth understanding, not just for families with children in the system, but for anyone paying attention to where St. Croix is headed.

What Was Built

The new campus sits on the former site of Evelyn M. Williams Elementary School. It was designed and built by MCN Build with design partner Perkins Eastman, following a groundbreaking in February 2023 and roughly three years of construction.

The finished campus includes:

• Classrooms built to withstand future storms
• A swimming pool, expanding options for physical education and swim instruction
• Playgrounds and outdoor learning areas
• The Evelyn M. Williams Commons, housing the cafeteria, library and media center, with capacity for 750 students

The Office of Disaster Recovery reported the project was obligated at $232 million, making it the largest vertical recovery project completed in the territory to date.

Why the Cost Story Matters

Education Commissioner Dr. Dionne Wells-Hedrington told the audience at Friday’s ceremony that the initial federal figure for the project came in around $80 million. That number would have essentially rebuilt what was already there before hurricanes Irma and Maria.

She refused it, and kept negotiating.

Her reasoning was strategic. Whatever number was accepted for Arthur A. Richards would set the baseline for every school project that followed. Settling early would have locked the territory into replacing outdated facilities across the entire system.

“There’s no way, if we had settled for that 80 million, would we be here today celebrating this ribbon cutting,” Wells-Hedrington said.

Office of Disaster Recovery Director Adrienne Williams-Octalien described a similar dynamic at the territory level, noting that the overall recovery effort grew from roughly $8 billion to $24 billion as officials worked through federal regulations and funding negotiations.

This Is the First of Many New St. Croix Schools

Arthur A. Richards is not a one-off project. According to Williams-Octalien, more than 17 schools across the territory are currently under contract, in construction, or finalizing design, representing approximately $5.2 billion in education reconstruction work.

Wells-Hedrington described the campus as the starting point rather than the finish line.

“This site marks the beginning of what’s to come in all of our other schools,” she said.

The Office of Disaster Recovery has more than 1,600 projects in its overall portfolio, of which 1,160 have been completed. Roads, ports, airports, public facilities and schools are all moving through the same pipeline.

The Names on the Building

The campus carries forward two significant St. Croix legacies.

Arthur A. Richards was born on St. Croix and educated in the territory’s public schools before continuing at Howard University, Hampton Institute and New York University, where he earned a doctorate in education. His career moved from the classroom to school leadership, then to the College of the Virgin Islands, where he served as provost, vice president and president. The Virgin Islands Legislature named a school in his honor in 1977.

Evelyn M. Williams began teaching in 1931 at Diamond Rural Elementary School and spent more than 40 years as a teacher and principal across several St. Croix schools. She died in 2013 at the age of 98. Her name lives on in the Evelyn M. Williams Commons at the heart of the new campus.

At the ceremony, Richards’ son Duane offered a line worth repeating: “Remember that buildings do not change lives; people do.”

What This Means If You Are Considering St. Croix

One of the most common questions we hear from buyers looking at St. Croix is some version of the same thing: what is the island actually going to look like in ten years?

Projects like this are part of the answer.

Quality of schools is a practical consideration for families relocating, and St. Croix schools are in the middle of the most significant rebuild in the territory’s history. But the broader signal matters just as much. Billions of dollars in federal recovery funding are being converted into permanent infrastructure across the island. Roads, ports, the airport, public facilities and now schools are all being brought up to modern standards, in many cases for the first time.

Buying property here means buying into a community that is actively investing in itself. That is a meaningfully different proposition than buying into one that is standing still.

Officials at Friday’s ceremony repeatedly emphasized that the work does not end at construction. Maintaining these facilities over the coming decades is the next challenge, and it is one the community will share. But the foundation being laid right now is real, it is funded, and it is visible.

Thinking About a Move to St. Croix?

Our agents live here, work here, and are raising families here. If you have questions about neighborhoods, school districts, or what island life actually looks like day to day, we are happy to have that conversation.

Contact Sea Glass Properties St. Croix
Phone: (340) 718-2500
Email: office@seaglassproperties.com
Web: seaglassproperties.com

Reporting details in this article are drawn from The Virgin Islands Consortium, published August 7, 2026.