NMC to save $300K from lab school closure

Northern Marianas College stands to save an estimated $300,000 a year from the scheduled closure of the NMC Laboratory School at the end of this school year.

NMC finance director Raaj Kurapati disclosed on Friday that the lab school, which serves as training ground for School of Education students, costs an annual average of $470,000 to operate. Expenditures include salaries and benefits of the principal and four instructors, and rent for the four buildings occupied by the lab school at the Joeten Housing area in Fina Sisu.

Meanwhile, the school only brings in some $170,000 in total income every year. Revenues come from the tuition and fees paid by students.

“On an annual basis, we actually operate on a deficit of $300,000. In effect, we will save ourselves that amount,” Kurapati said. “The reason for the operating loss, of course, is that the salaries and benefits are very expensive. We’re a government agency, and as such, we have to pay for retirement benefits by law. That adds a substantial amount to our operation costs.”

NMC president Antonio Deleon Guerrero said the college would have no choice but to terminate the contracts of the five personnel working at the lab school. He added however that NMC is looking for ways to accommodate the school principal and teachers who would be let go.

Deleon Guerrero said they would either be hired to work at other college departments or relocated to the Public School System.

Citing financial reasons, the NMC Board of Regents decided on March 10 to shut down the lab school effective the end of this school year.

The four regents present 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.

In recommending the action to the board, Deleon Guerrero had reported that the college’s limited resources were a major factor for its decision to cease the operations of the lab school.

The college, he had said, could 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, Deleon Guerrero had said that the lab school closure had the blessing 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.”