HAPPY STUDENTS! The British Virgin Islands shows its public-private partnership resourcefulness by getting a private donor to give Virgin Gorda it’s own temporary school building. Two months after Hurricane Irma, its U.S. Virgin Islands counterpart is sending storm-traumatized students to damaged, decrepit and moldy buildings for classes. Gov. Kenneth Mapp

KNOCKED OVER, BUT NOT OUT? Coral reef communities at St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, pictured here years before the recent hurricanes struck. (Credit: Howard Lasker) CRUZ BAY — A New York geologist will journey to St. John this month to study the impact of hurricanes Irma and Maria on coral reefs

HORROR SHOW: UVI’s Research & Technology Park sustained major damage after Hurricane Maria. FREDERIKSTED — The UVI RTPark, the Specialist Economic Development Program of the Virgin Islands, reached a milestone this week – despite significant damage suffered from Hurricane Maria – with the addition of the 50th client to its network. The Board of

  WASHINGTON — With many teachers among the thousands of residents fleeing Puerto Rico for the mainland after Hurricane Maria, school districts in Florida, Texas and New York say they are working to streamline the certification process in the hopes of adding Puerto Rican teachers to their classrooms. But for

FREDERIKSTED — For the first time at least 30 years, Bull and Bread Day has been canceled. The annual Liberty Day celebration and feast in Grove Place that celebrates the life and legacy of D. Hamilton Jackson will have to go on next year thanks to Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

SAN ANTONIO — Imagine going to “Tim Duncan High” where the fundamentals of learning are key. How about “Gregg Popovich High School” where students are taught to check their egos at the door and to keep pounding that rock. A Texas school trying to shed its Confederate ties is considering

DIRT HURTS: Sediment can smother corals, but Hurricane Hole has no sediment-bearing freshwater streams. Its clear waters are habitat for an entire community of marine life, including Montastrea corals and squirrelfish. (Photo: Caroline Rogers, USGS) CRUZ BAY — Coral reef expert Caroline Rogers was the only USGS employee in the Virgin Islands

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, BVI — A plan by British billionaire Richard Branson to lead a post-hurricane rebuilding effort in the Caribbean, with a focus on clean energy projects, may include debt relief negotiations mediated by the International Monetary Fund. Branson is spearheading a plan to help nations in the region

NEW YORK — The State University of New York will offer in-state tuition to students from the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, as requested earlier this month by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. SUNY trustees, in a special meeting Friday, unanimously approved a resolution amending the residency requirement for students attending

NEWARK — College students in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico whose studies have been halted by the recent hurricanes are being offered an educational lifeline by New Jersey City University, according to New Jersey dot com. The state college in Jersey City is offering those students tuition-free study this