A snafu by the Education Department has left students and teachers who take the ferry between St. John and St. Thomas without tickets for the first day of school, but the ferry companies came up with an interim solution for Tuesday only, Transportation Services manager Kenrick Augustus said Monday.
“We’ll let them sign in,” Augustus said.
He said students will be required to print their names and then sign them. They also must provide a contact telephone number and the name of the school they’ll attend.
Augustus said this system will be in place for the 7 through 9 a.m. ferries on Tuesday. If the Education Department hasn’t solved the problem by the end of the day, the ferry companies will let them sign in for the 4 through 7 p.m. trips so they can get home without having to buy a ferry ticket.
The ferry companies will then square up with the Education Department for the trips.
“We don’t want to put a hardship on the students,” Augustus said.
If the ferry companies hadn’t come to the rescue, students over age 12 would be faced with paying a $6 fare each way. The fare for those under age 12 runs $1 each way.
“That’s not fair,” St. John resident Enid Doway said.
Her daughter, Ashley Doway, 14, is heading off to start ninth grade on St. Thomas on Tuesday. Doway said if the ferry companies hadn’t come up with a plan for Tuesday, she’d have to make sure she sent her daughter with enough money to get to school.
Education Department spokesman Ananta Pancham was unable to get information about the issue on Monday.
Doway said she went to Julius E. Sprauve School on Aug. 26 to pick up the ferry tickets for her daughter. She said she was told that they would be distributed on the first day of school.
However, it remains unclear how students heading to St. Thomas would be able to get them at Sprauve School when most of them depart on the 7 a.m. boat. Classes at Sprauve start at 8:05 a.m.
The Department of Education pays the tab for ferry tickets for both public and private school students as well as teachers who use the ferry to get to school.
