‘$1.6M increase could help improve teacher-student ratio’

The expected $1.6-million increase in the Public School System’s budget is expected to help improve the teacher-student ratio—now estimated at about 30-to-1—and may also increase the amount of local operational funds left over for every public school student—which is at a mere $49.36 per student per year—if the Legislature were to allow PSS to have discretion in the use of the funds, according to Derek Sasamoto, PSS director of finance and budget.

“Having an average of 30-to-1 or more is not the best-case scenario,” Sasamoto said, noting that the Board of Education policy for student-teacher ratio is 25-to1.

Sasamoto said the $1.6-million increase is adequate for PSS to hire more than 20 new teachers.

He estimated that bigger schools like Hopwood Junior High School and Marianas High School still have ratios of 40-to-1, and added that because of previously limited funds, personnel costs were restricted so as to keep PSS from hiring all the full-time employees they wanted and instead made them hire substitute teachers.

In a board meeting last Tuesday, Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan said a couple of positions in high schools remain unfilled for the new school year.

However, in an interview on Friday, she said that PSS has hired some of its long-term teachers from its substitute teacher pool to become full-time equivalents for the school year.

“Next school year, we hope when the budget passes, [it restores] the positions that we want,” she said.

Per-student expenditure
The Commonwealth’s $49.36 expenditure for each public school student is based on operational funding for fiscal year 2014, which first is obligated to personnel costs and then to utilities, with a little more than half a million in remaining funds distributed to schools based on their population sizes, according to Sasamoto.

“Every student walking around in the Public School System only has 49 dollars and 36 cents to their name for the entire year. That’s it,” he said on the operation funding available for the over 10,000 PSS students.

The CNMI averages about 60 percent of average expenditure per pupil in the U.S., according to PSS Federal Programs officer Tim Thornburg last week.

When comparing the local and federal funds that PSS gets every year, Thornburg noted that the federal share has been increasing as local funds decrease.

PSS received 26 percent of the local budget in 2013, which dipped to 23 percent in 2014, according to Sasamoto, who also noted that government revenues have gone up in the last two years.

Sasamoto said that if you look at overall funding, the federal government spends anywhere from about $12,000 a student, while PSS expends about $6,000 per student overall.

“It would be hoped that we could pick that up and be comparable to other U.S. states and jurisdictions,” he said.

‘Flexibility’
He cited a “better working relationship” with the Legislature as a reason why PSS may see the budget increase of $1.6 million.

“I guess they are giving us the benefit of the doubt that [we are] really are trying to hire personnel and bring down our class sizes,” he said.

However he also expressed hope that some of the funds could be used to at least double the $49.36 expenditure per student if language in the bill gives them that flexibility.

“As director of finance, I would hope that I can take some of that money and funnel it into school operations, or maybe to pay CUC a settlement for all of the arrears to show them good faith efforts,” he said.

Saipan Tribune reported Friday that the Legislature is expected to tighten the language on the PSS budget provision to ensure there won’t be unnecessary salary increases for PSS employees.

Sablan reiterated Sasamoto’s desire for flexibility, saying it is important to allow agencies to have the discretion of how funds are to be used to meet the needs of their operations.

“We are accountable for our actions so we will see to it that the funds that we receive are spent wisely in the classrooms, and so should there be flexibility? Certainly. If the Legislature wants to appropriate the money and earmark it strictly to classroom personnel then I want them to know that that is a priority anyway,” she said.