PSS reports performance of fed grants

Determined to maintain existing federal grants that have kept the Public School System afloat despite budget cutbacks amounting to $5 million in the past two years, the school system has assured the US Department of Education of the grants’ effectivity as applied in CNMI public schools.

Every year PSS is required to submit performance reports to DOE on many of its formula grants before additional funds can be made available to the school system.

According to Federal Programs Coordinator Bill Matson, PSS is aiming to keep its special education and bilingual data collection/training grants collectively worth $250,000 as continuing resources in support of its educational programs.

The bilingual grant funds a data collection staff who has the responsibility of gathering and reporting data on PSS students.
With about 98 percent of public school students under the English as a Second Language category (since standard English is not the primary language used in most homes) tracking of bilingual students actually involves reporting on almost all of PSS students, according to Mr. Matson.

Through this program, PSS can keep track of what languages are being spoken at home and how this relates to the students’ performance at school.

According to Mr. Matson, it would be difficult to develop educational strategies to improve the language skills of students without knowing their language backgrounds.

The bilingual grant also provides funds to train bilingual education staff on techniques to assist our students in both improving their performance in English and in the Indigenous languages in the CNMI.

PSS is also spending a portion of its federally-acquired dollars to host a staff development training gathering Pacific bilingual educators.

The special education grant, on the other hand, provides the funding for one teacher and one related service provider to assist special education students in PSS.

This grant is in addition to the larger grants PSS has received for both infants and toddlers and school age students who qualify for special services.

“Our bilingual teachers are funded through the bilingual grant. There are over a hundred students that are helped by these two special education specialists and they may not sound a lot but their help makes a lot of difference,” said Mr. Matson.

Without the grant, special education services would need to be funded by other special education grants and those grants are currently fully budgeted to cover only the existing staff and other forms of support for special education students within the school system. (MM)