Aug. 25, 2003 – Gov. Charles W. Turnbull led an entourage of Education Department and political officials on visits of St. Croix public schools on Monday "to assess their readiness for the start of the new school year and to wish the students and faculty a successful and productive year," a Government House release stated.
The release cited visits to Pearl B. Larsen and Claude O. Markoe Elementary Schools.
Accompanying Turnbull on the visits were St. Croix Administrator Gregory Francis; Education Commissioner Noreen Michael; Terrence T. Joseph, district school superintendent; and Gloria Waterman, the governor's assistant on St. Croix.
The governor "visited several classrooms and interacted with the students about their plans for the future," the release stated. At Markoe, "he complimented the administration on the freshly painted mural and school emblem that welcome visitors as they walk through the gates of the school."
At each school, Turnbull stated, according to the release, "I am here today for the first of many visits during the school year."
Monday's outing was one of the governor's first public appearances since returning to the territory last week after nearly two weeks off island. From July 14 to 21, he was hospitalized on St. Thomas for what his medical team described as treatment for a bleeding ulcer.
School administrators conducted tours for the visiting dignitaries at both Larsen and Markoe, pointing out improvements made in preparation for the new school year, the release stated.
The governor is "working on upgrading the Caribbean and African-American collections at all public school libraries," it said, and he "inspected the books and requested an inventory from the librarians in order to get an accurate listing of what is needed so that students could become more familiar with the literary works of Virgin Islanders and other Caribbean writers," it said.

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