Officials to survey schools

Members of the House Committee on Education has scheduled onsite school visits prior to the CNMI-wide school opening next week in efforts to get a scope of the current state of Public School System campuses.

Education Committee Chair Brigida Ichihara said her committee will mainly be directing its attention to PSS Capital Improvement Projects still undergoing construction to identify what the projects still lack.

“We need to take a look at what the actual needs are so that we can open the upcoming school year with ease,” said Ms. Ichihara.

Legislators are set to visit Kagman Elementary School and the Marianas High School gymnasium. The tentative schedule of the visit has been set for Wednesday, according to the PSS CIP team.

The school system had targeted the $6 million Kagman Elementary to be finished by tomorrow. The campus now boasts of eight artistically designed buildings, 27 fully-airconditioned classrooms that can accommodate a maximum of 675 students, 25 per classroom.

But the MHS gym, according to project contractor Efrain F. Camacho Engineers and Architects, will not reach completion until Oct. 29, 2000.

The 25,000 square feet multi-purpose fitness facility will highlight a 12,960-square foot court area, a high school standard full basketball court with backstops, four half courts with retractable backstops, and two full volleyball courts with removable nets. It will also include three classrooms, three physical fitness workout areas, one weight lifting room, lockers rooms, and showers.

Ms. Ichihara, who earlier pledged all-out assistance to help lobby for funds needed to operate Kagman Elementary remains hopeful resources will be made available for the schools before school year 2000 starts.

“I am sure the government will find something to help them. In the past, if there’s a problem about money, they always found ways to resolve it,” Ms. Ichihara said.

Kagman Elementary, now nearing completion, still lacks the appropriate number of staff to run its operations.

PSS recently requested for some $640,000 in addition to its Fiscal Year 2000 personnel allotments to fund the new campus and the teachers and staff necessary to reduce the average class size in schools.

PSS is aiming to reduce average class size from the current 30 students per classroom teacher to only 20 per teacher.

The 76 FTEs is only a portion of the 174 current vacancies available as a result of the reduction in personnel allotments in the last two years. The reduction was due to the CNMI-wide austerity adjustments put in place to deal with financial constraints.

PSS is still awaiting word from the Governor’s Office regarding the additional funding request it has submitted a few weeks back.

Meanwhile, the school system has vowed to utilize current operating allotments to fund school operating costs during the months covering July through September from its reserved administrative funds.

The positions PSS is targeting to fill include bus drivers, teachers, administration personnel, principals, and so on.