NMC to close down lab school

Citing financial reasons, the Northern Marianas College decided yesterday to shut down its laboratory school effective the end of this school year.

The four regents present at yesterday’s board meeting voted unanimously to discontinue the operations of the school, which management said plays a minor role in the training of School of Education students.

There are 42 pre-school to 5th grade students currently enrolled in the lab school.

According to NMC president Tony Deleon Guerrero, the college’s limited resources were a major factor in its decision to cease the operations of the lab school.

Deleon Guerrero said the college administration based its decision on an assessment made by School of Education faculty and a separate task force created by NMC.

The college, he said, cannot guarantee at least five conditions set by the task force for NMC to continue operating the lab school. These conditions are: full financial support, full technological support, full physical plant support and appropriate facilities, ability to keep the lab school for 5 more years, and ability to add more grades or increase faculty and staff.

Further, the shutdown will relieve the college of financial responsibilities, including utility costs and 80,000 in annual rental expenses.

“Both the SOE/CLS committee and the SOE faculty conceded that our Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education Program does not need the CLS,” Deleon Guerrero said.

Quoting acting SOE director Sally Sablan, he explained that 90 percent of teachers-in-training are using Public School System and private schools, instead of the lab school, for their practicum.

He added that PSS alone now employs 90 SOE alumni who are ready to assist their undergraduate counterparts.

“The lab school exists to support NMC’s Education program. If the School of Education thinks they no longer need it for their program, there’s no reason for us to keep it,” he said.

The task force’s assessment was done at the suggestion of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

WAASC representative Mary Crist, following an October 2004 visit to NMC, recommended that: “The administration, working with the SOE, should examine the operations of the CLS to determine whether it is supporting the Teacher Preparation Program, as stated in the mission statement for the SOE.”