NMC board approves only one instructor for lab school

Citing budget constraints, the Northern Marianas College board of directors yesterday approved the hiring of only one of three instructors requested by the college laboratory school.

The NMC board made this decision along with the lifting of the hiring freeze for five other positions. These positions are college president, nursing instructor, education instructor, computer instructor, and counselor.

“The board has decided to lift the freeze for several essential positions that have been recognized as a priority for the institution. This would keep us within the limits of the available funding that we have until the end of the fiscal year,” NMC chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds said at the board’s special meeting yesterday.

The decision adopts the recommendation made by the college administration headed by acting NMC president Tony Deleon Guerrero. It was reached after the administration’s findings gained four affirmative votes from the six-member board. Director Margarita Olopai-Taitano voted “no.” She said she did not find the hiring of an instructor for the lab school, which had been “mismanaged,” a priority for NMC.

For his part, director Galvin Guerrero abstained, saying he could not make an informed decision based on the data laid out during the meeting.

Earlier, parents of lab school students have pressed for the immediate hiring of three new teachers, as they expressed concerns over the planned closure of the school in Finasisu and its transfer to the Public School System.

The school, which offers kindergarten to 8th grade, has only two teachers left. It needs at least three more teachers to handle the upper grade levels, they said.

But the acting NMC president said the college has been losing money because of the lab school. “Because of our current financial situation, as well as the overall financial situation of the CNMI government, we need to live within our means. So we’re doing our own internal analysis on trying to improve the quality of our educational programs and services here at NMC. We are exploring the possibility of collaborating closer with PSS, so we can minimize our expenditures in operating the lab school,” Deleon Guerrero said.

For her part, lab schoolteacher Geri Willis said the institution will just have to contend with one new instructor.

“I think the board did an excellent job on their decision. It was a difficult decision to make because there are so many departments that are in need. Of course, we’d like to have every one of the positions filled, but again we have to meet WASC’s requirements as far as fiscal responsibility,” Willis said.

A total of 58 students have registered with the lab school as of June 18.

WASC is the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, whose accrediting commission had placed the college on warning status in January due to its failure to submit annual audit reports on time in the past few years.

The warning status remained despite a recent trip by King-Hinds and Deleon Guerrero to meet with WASC officials in California.

WASC, according to Deleon Guerrero, required the college to submit a progress report by Oct. 15, 2004.