ST. CROIX — All but two members elected in November 2024 to serve on the Virgin Islands Boards of Elections and Education took their oaths of office during three separate swearing-in ceremonies Monday in Superior Court on St. Croix and St. Thomas.
Cleopatra Peter, who was elected to her first term on the Board of Elections in the St. Croix District, declined to participate because she said holding the ceremony on Three Kings Day violates an elections law.
“As a result, I need my swearing in to be rescheduled on a legal day per the VI Code,” she said after the ceremony.
Peter acknowledged that a Board of Elections law in the Virgin Islands Code in Title 18, Chapter 3, Section 41(c) states in the first sentence that “the term of office for each member shall be four years beginning on the first Monday after the first day of January following the election.” She interpreted another elections law in Section 3(b) of Title 18 to take her stance that the ceremony was unlawful.
Title 18, Chapter 1, Section 3(b) states that “no part of any day fixed for the performance of any duties by any person or official under this title shall be deemed a Sunday or other legal holiday so as to affect the legality of any work done for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this title, or the right of any person to any compensation herein provided for rendering any service required hereby, or so as to relieve any person from doing on such day whatever is necessary for such purposes, and such services are hereby declared to be necessary public services.”
Peter read the law aloud in the courtroom before Judge Alphonso Andrews Jr. administered the oath to the two other St. Croix board members in attendance — Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal and Cornelius Jason JnBaptiste. After suggesting that taking the oath of office would be in violation of the law, Peter requested to participate in the ceremony another day. Andrews informed her that the Board of Elections requested him to administer the oath on Monday.
“We’ll do it anyway,” he said.
Andrews urged Peter to participate, informing her that any issue could be addressed later if the oath is deemed invalid. Peter told the judge that she would prefer to follow the law, declining to be sworn in. She remained standing while the other two board members raised their right hands to take their oaths.
“Congratulations to you both,” Andrews said after administering the oath.
Peter was not the only member elected to the board who did not participate in the ceremony.
Michael Joseph, of St. Croix, was unable to attend. He joined the board in 2022 when he filled a vacancy following the death of then-member Glen Webster due to his standing in the 2020 general election. Joseph was subsequently elected in November to serve his first full term.
Joseph, an attorney who noted that he must appear in court Tuesday as a witness, said he has already spoken with Judge Jessica Gallivan about having her administer his oath while in court.
“I have to be in court so it will be more convenient to be sworn in tomorrow,” he said by phone on Monday.
Belardo de O’Neal was re-elected to a fourth term. She said her goal for the next four years is to organize more aggressive community outreach initiatives to inform residents about the elections process.
“I continue to work cohesively with the rest of the members to continue to be transparent,” she said.
JnBaptiste, who was elected to his first term, said he had a desire to serve so he ran for a seat on one of the “most important boards” to do the work of the people. He said he hopes to collaborate with other board members to identify elections laws that need to be strengthened to ensure “fairness and transparency.”
In addition to the ceremony on St. Croix, four others elected to the Board of Elections in the St. Thomas/St. John District took their oaths of office Monday before Presiding Judge Debra Watlington. Lawrence Boschulte, Chaneel Callwood, and Barbara LaRonde, all of St. Thomas, were sworn in along with St. John resident Nathan Fletcher, who won the election as a write-in candidate.
Boschulte, who was elected to a fifth term, said his goal for this term is to ensure the public has a positive image of the board.
“You hear negativity all the time,” he said. “You even have some of the board members that are negative towards how it’s run. I think if we all get together to prove to the public that the system is safe, the system is trustworthy, more people would come out to vote.”
Callwood, a first-time board member, has a sharp vision of what she would like to accomplish while serving on the board.
“I’m hoping to increase the participation of the general public in our elections and increase voter registration and help people to make their voices heard,” she said. “I pledge to work cooperatively and collaboratively with my colleagues to advance the cause of having free, open, and fair elections in the Virgin Islands.”
LaRonde, who was elected to the board for her first time, said she would like to see more transparency from the board.
“I would like to see a little bit more transparency and integrity brought to the area,” she said. “I would like to see the Board of Elections take a little bit more responsibility over what the Elections System is doing.”
Fletcher said his goal as a board member is to give St. John more of a voice and get more of the island’s residents registered to vote.
“There’s so many people on St. John that really weren’t registered to vote and didn’t know that they had a voice,” he said.
While the members elected to the Board of Elections participated in swearing-in ceremonies on St. Croix and St. Thomas, the members elected to the Board of Education from both districts took their oaths on St. Thomas. Watlington spoke to them about her history as a former member of the Board of Education and as a family court judge and presiding judge.
“We need to take good care of these children,” she said. “Good luck!”
The elected Board of Education members are Mary Moorhead and Emmanuella Perez-Cassius, both of St. Croix, and Kyza Callwood and Nandi Sekou, both of the St. Thomas/St. John District. Abigail Hendricks Cagan, of St. John, was elected as a write-in candidate to serve as the board’s at-large member. They were supported during the ceremony by existing board members Winona Hendricks, chair, and Judy Gomez, Arah Lockhart, and Terrence Joseph.
Moorhead, who was elected to a third term after previously serving from 2013 to 2020, said she will address items relating to education that are codified in law but have never been implemented, including mandates for courses on financial literacy, basic agriculture, and Virgin Islands history. She discussed a desire to hear from the Virgin Islands Department of Education about plans to address the learning gap that she said got accentuated when students participated in virtual sessions during the coronavirus pandemic in addition to receiving an update on school maintenance and construction projects.
“I’m ready and excited to get it done because our children need to get a better education,” Moorhead said.
Perez-Cassius, who was re-elected to a second term, said her focus is to continue building systemic structures to better serve teachers.
“I’m also interested in making sure that we continue to use strategy to serve in a way that is impactful, but also partnership that keeps people’s voices at the table with us,” she said.
Kyza Callwood, the board’s chair who was re-elected to a third term, said he would like to achieve more during the next four years in policy development to include ensuring all teachers are certified as required by law.
“We have to work on fixing that so people can understand that being certified shows that you are able, willing, and capable of doing whatever it takes to educate our students,” he said.
Sekou, who was re-elected to a fourth term, said she is hoping to do more for students during her next term.
“Our board is a board that lacks governance, so we don’t oversee the day-to-day operations of the Department of Education,” she said. “However, I believe that there are more things that we can do for students to ensure their success.”
Cagan, who was elected to her first term, said she is hoping to achieve a new way of thinking while serving on the board.
“We are in tumultuous times,” she said. “We’re trying to get our kids educated, so I’m hoping that we could do an awesome job by being innovative, patient, and understanding.”
