Department Of Education

Department Of Education - doing business as Raphael O Wheatley Skills Center, a U.S. local government entity and child division of the Government Of The Virgin Islands, functions as the territorial education agency for the U.S. Virgin Islands and receives federal formula and project grants as a prime recipient across K-12 education, special education, adult literacy, and child nutrition programs. The entity operates as a pass-through grantee, distributing federal funding to schools and educational service providers across the three main islands (St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John) and administers the Wheatley Skills Center campus in Charlotte Amalie.

The recipient's grant footprint spans six federal grantor agencies with concentrated activity in education and nutrition programs. The Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education funds consolidated grants to the insular areas under CFDA 84.403 — most recently a $9.251 million award dated July 1, 2026, covering the period through September 30, 2027, for consolidated administration of Title I Part A and other ESEA programs. The Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services awards formula grants under CFDA 84.027 (Special Education Grants to States) to fund special education and related services for children with disabilities ages 3 through 21; the FY2026 grant reached $2.686 million. The Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service provides the largest volume of awards: the National School Lunch Program (CFDA 10.555) delivered $1.470 million in FY2025 and $4.606 million in FY2026 for nonprofit lunch service reimbursement and USDA Foods support; the State Administrative Expenses for Child Nutrition program (CFDA 10.560) awarded $461,171 in FY2025 for meal reimbursement administration. Additional Department of Agriculture awards support the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP TEFAP), food distribution administration, fresh fruits and vegetables programs, and farm-to-school grants funded under the American Rescue Plan. The Department of Education Office of Career Technical and Adult Education and Employment and Training Administration fund adult education and family literacy grants (CFDA 84.002 and related) supporting workplace literacy, family literacy, and English literacy programs. Project grants from the Department of Education include a Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant running through September 30, 2026, a USVI Community STEM Project for after-school programming (completion September 30, 2027), and child nutrition training and equipment grants. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also appears in the award portfolio.

Sub-awardees receiving distributions from Raphael O Wheatley Skills Center include named schools across the territory: Addelita Cancryn Junior High School, St. Croix Educational Complex, Eulalie Rivera Elementary School, Alexander Henderson Elementary School, Arthur A Richards Junior High School, Central High School, Charlotte Amalie High School, Claude O Markoe Elementary School, E Benjamin Oliver Elementary School, Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, Joseph Gomez Elementary School, Joseph Sibilly Elementary School, Julius Sprauve Elementary School, Leonard Dober Elementary School, Lew Muckle Elementary School, Pearl B Larsen Elementary School, Ricardo Richards Elementary School, Ulla Muller Elementary School, Yvonne Milliner Bowsky Elementary School, and alternative education academies. Sub-awards also flow to the Government Of The Virgin Islands for management costs, curriculum centers, and educational infrastructure projects across the territory.

Recent activity shows 402 total awards (prime and sub combined) spanning from 1999 to July 1, 2026. Award volume peaked in 2024 with 76 awards; 2025 and 2026 year-to-date show reduced activity (17 and 2 awards respectively), reflecting the timing of annual formula grant cycles. Combined obligated dollars across the portfolio total $3.4 billion against a combined potential value of $84 thousand, indicating that the source's potential-value metric underreports the true scale of awards in this dataset. Five awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. The top five grantor agencies by award count account for 86% of awards: the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (163 awards combined across two listed lines), the Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (82 awards), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (78 awards), and the Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (23 awards). Raphael O Wheatley Skills Center competes exclusively in formula and project grant categories and does not hold federal contracts or contract vehicles.