Lab School parents worry about school transfer

The Northern Marianas College Lab School Parent Advisory Council has expressed concern over the planned transfer of the Lab School to the Public School System.

Council treasurer Karen Buettner said in a statement yesterday that parents have been meeting in efforts “to save the school and its unique educational program.”

“The parents’ main concern is that this distinctive approach to learning, based on current educational research, will be lost if NMC transfers the school to PSS, which has different policies and practices,” said Buettner.

She said that, if the goal is to trim down expenses—as previously cited by the NMC administration—she said the tuition and fees at CLS “are actually enough to cover the cost” for the annual rent of five buildings totaling $52,000, utilities, cable, housekeeping, and all other operational expenses.

Parents pay $200 in tuition for each child a month. The only thing not covered by the school fees is the teachers’ salaries. However, she noted that the teacher’s pay is covered by appropriation funds from the CNMI government through NMC.

As of May 28, 2004, the last day of classes at CLS, there were 61 paid registered students for the school year 2004-2005.

Further, Buettner said that, as of yesterday, CLS has only two teachers out of the five needed to teach its students.

CLS offers up to 8th grade classes. Each teacher is tasked to handle two grade levels.

Buettner said that more than half of the 61 registered students will have to find another school to attend if the NMC Board of Regents does not approve the hiring of three critical replacements of the three teachers who resigned or retired this year.

“Our primary concern is for our children’s ongoing education. Not replacing teachers means not offering classes to most of our children in these elementary grades,” she said.

She said the council is aware that CLS is a program offered for NMC’s School of Education students. However, she said that it has become an educational institution “where our children actually receive an education certificate and are graduated to the next grade.”

In a statement, the council, on behalf of Lab School parents, appealed to the NMC board to immediately approve the hiring of three teachers.

The council said it is willing to volunteer to collect pledges and encourage educational tax donations to NMC to help pay teachers’ salaries.

“It is unfortunate we did not know about the impact of this crisis on the Lab School earlier as we might have been able to direct business BGRT donations in the first fiscal quarter to NMC. However, we are doing what we can to help NMC meet its financial obligations,” the council said.

It said that many parents even volunteered to pay higher tuition just to save the school.

She said that parents send their children to the Lab School mainly for its quality curriculum.

“We would like to offer our sincere thanks to NMC administration for working with us to keep CLS at its current location. We are also asking the board to seriously consider our request for immediate replacement of three teachers,” it said.