Schools Bursting at Seams, Premier Says Territory Must Plan for Growth

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr. Natalio Wheatley has warned that schools across the Virgin Islands are overcrowded and need urgent expansion to keep pace with anticipated population growth.

Speaking during a public consultation on Tuesday about a proposed 10,000-capacity open-air cultural arts facility, Wheatley argued that major public infrastructure projects must be sized to meet future demand, not just current needs.

"All the schools we have now, we got to expand these schools. Schools are bursting at the seams because we built those schools when the population was a certain size," Wheatley said. He cautioned against building facilities that could quickly become inadequate: "You want to be able to build for the future, build for growth, not spend all that money on a facility and then you figure it's too small."

The Premier cited his own lifetime as evidence of rapid demographic change. He said the population had roughly doubled since his childhood and predicted a similar increase could occur by the time his children reach his age. "We can't just build for today. We have to build for tomorrow," he stated.

Wheatley pointed to tourism investment as a driver of future growth. He said investors behind one proposed development had indicated they would need approximately 1,000 workers on the property, illustrating the additional demand that future economic activity could place on the Territory's infrastructure and services.

The Premier maintained that the proposed cultural arts facility should be evaluated within this context of anticipated growth. "The population of the Virgin Islands is going to go up," he said.