Principal laments absence of insurance for public schools

Dandan Elementary School principal Jonas Barcinas learned the sobering fact that public schools in the CNMI are not insured only after his school was burglarized last June 27.

He said the lack of insurance is the main reason why damaged school property usually remain unattended for a long period of time.

Fourteen of the school’s classrooms fell victim to the hands of robbers a couple of Sundays ago.

Barcinas said that, if DES were insured on the day it was burglarized, it wouldn’t have taken long for the school to repair and replace the property that was damaged and stolen. He said repairing the windows and other property destroyed by the burglars would mean additional expenditures on the part of the Public School System.

PSS associate commissioner for administrative services David M. Borja said during an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday that none of the schools in the CNMI are insured due to budget constraints.

“It’s all budget driven,” he said, while pointing out that PSS is a non-revenue generating government entity and all government entities are self-insured.

He said the cost of insuring the schools are “just way too high” and the budget allocated for them would not satisfy the insurance requirement.

“Schools are not insured. I have nothing to say because we don’t have money to insure schools,” he said.

Borja said they could only fund the salary of personnel and some of the operational costs inclusive to schools.

He said they could not even insure school buses and the children that use them due to the lack of funding. He said that, if all school buses were to be insured, PSS would need at least $100,000 a year.

Though he could not estimate how much school buildings would need for insurance, he believes the amount would even be higher.

Borja also admitted that PSS could not pay electric and water utilities because they are not funded.

He also cited the damage caused by suspected arsonists at the Kagman High School late last May. He said the room that was burned down has not been repaired. Funds are needed to renovate the room for the upcoming school year. The problem has grown two-fold since PSS is still trying to figure out how to solve the overcrowding in Kagman schools.

Borja said PSS is getting some positive feedback from the government about a hike in their budget for next year. Borja said they are just waiting for the result of their request for an additional $700,000.

The PSS has had a fixed budget of $37.2 million since 1998. Borja said that, if they include insurance coverage, the funds would just not be sufficient. He said personnel compensation and other operational costs are more important now, but he said he is not ruling out the need to insure school buildings.

In just one month, a total of four schools have been burglarized, including DES. Kagman High School’s Environmental Science and Oceanography room was burned down by suspected arsonists last May 28, while Marianas High School and Hopwood Junior High School were burglarized on June 1 and June 12, respectively.