re location to the USVI

I am not touching this one.

Jodi: I would check the RLS Hospital website: rlshospital.org for the hospital info. Nursing there is a union job and I suspect the salaries are set. As I said below, no Hospice. Home Health # is 775-1660, talk to Sandra Daly.

There is very good to excellent elementary education- Antilles, Montessori, All Saints and St Peter and Paul come to mind.

Crime is mainly domestic violence and gang warfare, same as most places. You might want to spend some time reading the on-line newspapers: The Source (onepaper.com) and virginislandsdailynews.com

Jodi,

The schools East Ender mentioned are really good. They are all private schools, all on St. Thomas. Public schools are questionable in terms of quality - however there a few that are good as well, Peace Corps School and Sibilly Elementary School are good Public Elementary schools on St. Thomas and they are located in the "country" - not in town. The public school system has been in a bit of a pickle as of late, the high schools lost acceditation and since then the education department has been fractically trying to improve things. The web sites for two of the private schools mentioned are:

http://www.vimontessori.org/
Antilles School http://www.antilles.k12.vi.us/

2. Salary - go to the Moving Guide on this web site, scroll to the top, there is a topic employment - go there, and select the salary/job topic - it is a table with average salaries for various jobs. The hospital web site might have information also as East Ender mentioned.

3. Crime rates - you might want to search this message board for that topic, there are quite a few threads about this. East Ender is right about what was said, lots of domestic crimes and crimes stemming from drug/gang related groups. Solving these crimes becomes a tangle of red tape, as the community is small and often times someone involved knows someone on the police force, which either means it gets solved quicker or the file gets mis-placed.

I would suggest you order a Settlers Handbook and request some newspapers when ordering the book. The book covers all facets of island living and what to expect about moving here; employment, schools, things to do, church, fishing, roads, electricity, history, everything.

You can order it from http://www.vitraders.com

Also read through the moving guide on this site, Select Island Living and read through the sub topics on the right navigation. And also Infrastructure, housing and what to expect.

http://www.vinow.com/move

--Islander