NMC board tackles Lab School issues

The search for a new president and the issues surrounding the Lab School will top the agenda in today’s meeting of the Northern Marianas College Board of Regents.

The board placed the two issues under its new business.

NMC board chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds earlier indicated that she is open to discussions about the Lab School.

The CLS Parent Advisory Council earlier asked the board to hold a special meeting to tackle Lab School concerns such as the immediate hiring of three replacement teachers.

Council treasurer Karen Buettner said that CLS, which offers kindergarten to 8th grade, has only two teachers so far.

CLS usually hires five teachers to handle two grade levels each. Buettner said CLS currently lacks three teachers for the upper grade students.

Aside from the teaching staff issue, the council also aims to hear the board’s plan for the Lab School.

Some parents have expressed concern over the proposed transfer of the Lab school to the Public School System.

Buettner said the parents’ main concern is that CLS’ “distinctive approach to learning, based on current educational research, will be lost if NMC transfers the school to PSS which has different policies and practices.”

Lab School parent Jane Lizama, for her part, said she hopes that NMC “will reconsider its view of CLS as ‘just another program’ and see it for what it really is: an educational institution that not only models best practices for college level student teachers, but where children receive a great education.”

Lizama, a mother of six, said that her children have “received the best education” from CLS. She said that CLS has scholarship for students belonging to families with limited income, has a unique educational theory of integrated thematic instruction, and facilitates rare activities for students such as off-island travels.

She said CLS’ small classroom size makes it a perfect learning environment for students.

Lizama said that without CLS, her family’s other option would be to send the children to PSS “in our district, which is already overcrowded with 25-30 students per classroom.”

Lab School parents have been meeting in efforts to save the school and its educational program. The council believes that the school’s tuition and fees can adequately support its operations. Parents pay $200 tuition a month for each child.

Meantime, the board aims to hire a new president by fall this year as recommended by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The college is currently headed by interim president Tony Deleon Guerrero, who took over the position following the resignation last February of president Kenneth Wright.