Daily News Photo by SEAN McCOY Yvonne Milliner-Bowsky listens during the ceremony to re-name Peace Corps Elementary School in her honor.

ST. THOMAS - Michael Bowsky watched his grandmother become part of Virgin Islands history on a drizzly Sunday afternoon as she pulled down piece of royal blue material to reveal her namesake -Yvonne Milliner-Bowsky Elementary School - emblazoned on a white banner suspended over the entrance to the office of what was once Peace Corps Elementary School.

"This is wonderful and inspiring," said Michael, 12, of Atlanta. "Having a school named after you is a big thing," said the boy, who visits his family in the V.I. for Christmas and summer vacations. The middle school student said he learned about his grandmother's accomplishments as an educator during the renaming ceremony held on the front lawn of the Mandahl school. He sat in the audience of more than 200 well-wishers before presenting Milliner-Bowsky with a bouquet of flowers.

Michael said the story of the school's inception kept his attention.

"I was impressed. When she first came it was all bad and nothing," Michael said. "Then how she turned it into what I see now."

Milliner-Bowsky said she fell in love with the nine buildings nestled in the hills of quiet Mandahl in 1973, when she and a team of educators scouted the 11 acres.

"As I recall, with all of us it was love at first sight," Milliner-Bowsky said from the podium Sunday. She said the island's two elementary schools at the time, Joseph Sibilly Elementary and Joseph Gomez Elementary, were forced into double sessions because of overcrowding. Milliner-Bowsky said some children were left behind.

"Handicap children were not admitted on schools," she said.

The opening of Peace Corps school during the administration of the late Gov. Melvin Evans solved two major problems 33 years ago, she said. "It resolved double sessions in the elementary schools and met the needs for handicap children," Milliner-Bowsky said. "We felt a sense of peace and tranquility tucked away from the noise," she said.

The commissioner of Education at the time, Harold Haizlip, appointed Milliner-Bowsky as the first principal in August 1973.

The school had small beginnings Milliner-Bowsky said. "We started under the trees. Our survival was truly a miracle," she said.

Fellow educator Elizabeth Shortt said Milliner-Bowsky, who served as principal from 1973 to 1987, was a visionary and made a conducive learning environment out of nothing.

"She was an innovator ahead of her time," said Shortt, who was part of the team that scouted the bush with Milliner-Bowsky three decades ago.

The school was not connected to anything involving the Peace Corps except that this was a federal training site for volunteers heading to Africa for service, Shortt said. Following Milliner-Bowsky's footsteps, Shortt served as Peace Corps principal from 1987 to 2003.

In 2002, senators made efforts to rename the school.

Sen. Norma Pickard Samuel sponsored a bill to name the school for retired educator Lucille Roberts.

The senator withdrew the bill at the request of Roberts' family after the legislation kicked up a storm of protest from people who wanted to retain the Peace Corps name.

In November, senators approved legislation honoring Yvonne Milliner-Bowsky for her dedicated service to the community and renaming the Peace Corps Elementary School in her honor.

- Contact Merlin JnBaptiste at 774-8772 ext. 352 or e-mail mjnbaptiste@dailynews.vi.