PSS classes resume tomorrow

With Typhoon Bolaven continuing to move away from the CNMI, all Public School System classes will resume tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 13, while all PSS staff will report to work today, Thursday, Oct. 12.

Interim Education commissioner Donna M. Flores said in a memo yesterday that all PSS staff, including 190-day employees, (excluding substitute teachers, substitute aides, Title 1 staff, high-dosage tutors, and peer tutors) will report back to work today and all PSS school and central offices will open tomorrow.

“We extend our sincere appreciation to all the front-liners who sacrificed their time and efforts to ensure the safety and protection of our community throughout the storm,” she added.

Separately, in a news briefing yesterday afternoon at the Commissioner’s Office on Capital Hill, Flores said they did an initial check on school facilities in the morning and afformed that there were no damage.

But, as a precaution and for students and staffs’ safety, classes are to resume tomorrow instead of today. “This is just to help prepare the respective buildings and school campuses for the students… just to ensure their safety prior to the resumption of school services,” said Flores.

“We’re so fortunate there’s very minimal damage to any of our campuses. Acting commissioner Eric Magofna and I went to most of the campuses early this morning (yesterday morning). We observed the grounds and structures. …It was surprising to see that the grounds were pretty clean,” she said.

The only issues they found in some schools were electrical issues, which is part of the reason why they decided to have their school teams do their assessments today.

Flores said school sports that were scheduled to take place this week will be rescheduled to a later date. “There will be no public school sports activities for the rest of the week. That’s also because we have kids coming from the other two islands and it’s just a bit of an inconvenience for them, considering what’s happening and the flights. So, it’s just in the best interest of the students just to push it sometime next week or however our athletics director [Nick Gross] will fit it into the schedule.”

When asked whether there will be makeup classes for the lost instructional time, Flores said it’s the State Board of Education’s decision whether or not they will waive it or add school days later.

When asked about the four PSS schools that were used as shelters during the typhoon, she said Kagman High School had the most number. She said an influx of people came in at 9pm Tuesday night.

At KHS, a fuse blew when the power went out at Kagman on Tuesday, but Flores said it won’t be an issue in the future. “Fortunately, we have a great partnership with the [Commonwealth] Utilities Corp. and we were able to communicate with them. They went on site and they were able to rectify the issue. However, there’s still a couple of minor issues, so that will allow them to come back tomorrow to fix whatever else needs to be fixed.”