La Fiesta as junior high, high school campus spurs debate

The subject of making the former La Fiesta Mall the site for a new junior high and high school campus caused a stir in yesterday’s emergency Board of Education meeting at the Pacific Islands Club, with additional cost at the center of the debate.

BOE chair Roman Benavente opened the topic when he volunteered that Public School System director of finance Richard Waldo met with the governor’s senior policy adviser, Robert Schwalbach, a week ago to discuss the possibility of transforming the idle facility into a new junior high and high school campus.

Rita Sablan said the issue should not be discussed at all since the La Fiesta issue is an old one. She said the board should instead focus on student learning, but Benavente said he had to bring the subject up so that everyone would understand what was happening.

Benavente said what prompted the Governor’s Office’s proposal to establish a new junior high and high school at the La Fiesta was the obvious problem of overcrowding in junior high and high schools on Saipan.

BOE board member Herman T. Guerrero conceded that the problem exists due to the increasing number of students in schools.

“Somehow nobody anticipated that the number of students would increase substantially,” he said, referring to junior high and high schools in Kagman.

He said the projection of the PSS did not meet the actual numbers now as the schools were built to accommodate only a certain number of students.

Benavente said the CNMI has about 400 excess students in Kagman High School and Chacha Junior High School. He said the new proposal of Gov. Juan N. Babauta would alleviate overcrowding in the two schools.

He said Waldo suggested the rental fee for the facilities would be $1 a year.

“The government would like to see if PSS would be interested in the mall, for a buck a year,” he said.

Benavente added the government would even take care of the utilities but PSS would have to shoulder the maintenance cost.

Guerrero was a bit guarded and said the opening of a new school in La Fiesta would entail added expenses on the part of PSS, contradicting the point that it would not cost anything.

“Of course it’s going to cost us because we don’t have enough money to run another school,” he said.

Guerrero also added that opening a new school would involve hiring more teachers and would require more money for operations.

Benavente said what Guerrero is referring to are hidden expenses that would eventually be addressed in the agreement if the La Fiesta proposal ever prospers.

He said right now everything is premature and the board will arrange a meeting with the administration sometime next week.

“I’ve always been open with them [the board] and I’m going to be always be open to them,” he said. “If the majority prevails so be it and if the majority does not approve of it then so be it,” he told reporters later.

The plan to establish a gateway program for international students backfired when the Northern Marianas College acquired the facility, putting a substantial dent on its financial status. This affected its accreditation and finally forced the college to transfer the mall to the Governor’s Office.